Today’s Prayer: Read the Directions LOL. Years and years ago, I was awarded a scholarship that helped pay for my college expenses, including my years at Loyola in Rome, Italy. So, I was thrilled to give back by being invited to read and assess current applicants’ essays. I just spent THREE (3) HOURS reviewing essays and was getting ready to cancel some important meetings this week so that I could complete the rest of the essays before 5 p.m. this Friday. And then, I reopened the email and saw this: Below are the reference numbers for the essays you will review: Three reference numbers were listed. Three. READ THE DIRECTIONS. I used to share with my students the very long, drawn-out set of directions on how to complete a project. The idea was to read alllllll the way to the bottom to learn that all you had to do was one thing. Well, I must have developed the gift of skipping alllll the way to the bottom and in the process missed the actual directions which were quite near to the top of the email. LOL. Blessed Mother, Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, all the Angels and Saints and Holy Men, Women, and Children, Help me laugh at myself for the impatience and excitement and desire to help that makes me skip critical sentences of emails and miss entirely the gist of my instructions; Help me laugh with myself for the intolerance that I felt when I read essays where the writer clearly had not read the instructions all the way through BECAUSE I DO THE SAME THING! Help me laugh so that I don’t get carried away with criticizing myself. And then, help me READ THE DIRECTIONS. Help me give myself the time it takes to read the words as they are on the page. Guide me to take a deep breath and really focus on what’s in front of me instead of letting my enthusiasm carry me to some place related to but not exactly where I need to be. Help me recognize my enthusiasm as the gift it is and recognize at the same time, how that enthusiasm needs to be channeled, focused, supported and ordered. Help me do the due diligence BEFORE I make the decision or choice. Help me read all the way through BEFORE I jump in and start flailing about in the waters that are unnecessarily over my head. Help me appreciate that by releasing just some of my enthusiastic steam, I am able to focus better and, therefore, help better. Ready. Fire. Aim. is okay, even good when I’m working on creating something wonderful and on my own and parameters have not yet been established. It doesn’t work, it makes MORE work, when I’m helping someone who already has set protocols. Yikes. I have to say, though, that having made the mistake, I got to read some very interesting and inspirational writing by some young people who are only just now stepping into their lives and looking for ways to help make it happen. God bless them. And God bless and help me read the directions. LOL Blessings. ©paulaksgardner, 2014. .
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:29:33 +0000
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