Get Your House in Order: Working Girls

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."
Colossians 3:23-24
Abby and I getting ready for work..we match!

As a young girl I can remember always loving to play like I was a secretary in an office. Dad was in sales so he always had lots of papers and would let me have some of his old files to use  in "my office." He laughs and says I always said "I was paying my bills." If I only knew at that age what paying bills actually entailed..haha!

Fast forward a few years, being thirteen and loving more than anything to keep the babies in the church nursery, I started a babysitting business. Mom was producing the church bulletin at that time, so she was a wiz at helping me put a flier together. We used some cut outs and a copier (no stock photos then). She drove me around our huge neighborhood in her Chrysler Cordova and I placed my fliers in as many mailboxes as I could. To my surprise, I started getting calls and some jobs, even had some regulars that I continued to keep (and love so much) all through high school.

Babysitting turned into a side job along side my other "real jobs" in high school. I started working at a video store a few days after I turned sixteen. My car needed gas and I was quite the fashion plate, both of which required money. I was one that always took a friend along with whatever I did so, Heather joined me at the video store as well as some babysitting. I learned how to open and close a store, work the cash register, some time management skills and most of all how to balance social life as well as school and work. It taught me to make choices on short and long term goals for myself. (Coming from my forty-two year old self, I never knew that's what I was doing at sixteen, seventeen and eighteen years old..haha).  I also worked at a few retail stores at the Galleria because at that time I thought I wanted to go into fashion retail, as most girls do at that age. Networks and The Body Shop, oh yea, makes me laugh thinking about that! It was at those places that I got a little competitive edge in making my quota on selling clothes, learned how to talk with customers and the hard lesson of resisting the urge to spend all my paycheck on the latest trends that came in the store every week.

In college, I worked in the office at a new apartment complex for about a year.  The manager was looking for someone to help her out and so  I began babysitting her children several days a week.. picking them up from school and helping with homework, going over after my summer classes and taking them to the pool. And then I graduated from college.....to be continued!
Pop and Abby on the way to work!

I wanted to share some of my work experiences because they came back to mind... this morning as I was getting ready for work, so was Abby! Yes, my girl has herself a job this summer. She is working two days a week at Cabinet Components. She goes to work with Pop, actually chauffeurs him there, driving that big truck!I love hearing about her day and what she is learning, doing and enjoying. It's a clerical position but she has done all kinds of stuff. And she particularly loves the work environment because they have a cat named Bobby. Right up her alley.

She is making the connection as I did that work is important and she will learn soon enough that it does help "pay the bills." She too has had her own ventures in lemonade stands and a dog walking business. I am so thankful for her opportunity to experience work and build her work ethic! How very thankful I am for all my experiences that really have made me who I am today! God had each and every job planned to build skills He knew I would need later (whether I thought I needed them or not). More than anything, especially now, my work is a mission field. I am out in hospitals, doctors offices, etc every day and sometimes I just pray for those I see. However, most days I get the opportunity to talk with someone who is either going through something or needs a word of encouragement or a smile. I am the one who calls myself blessed because I know that there are no coincidences. Every interaction is just as it should be.

His word says "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans." Proverbs 16:3 That is my prayer for my working girl. I know he is building her in His image, shaping her story.

What was your first job? I would love to hear about it! I learned so by putting these thoughts together today..please share! And have a wonderful day!

Day#200 Work is great experience
Blessings,
Suzanne

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