Are We Happy, Really?Written by Joyce C. Lock
Are we getting just old enough, and on so many medications,That we don't realize how down right irritable we can be? Or, have we not realized how unhappy we really are? Upon first entering workforce, I was in shock, and sometimes thoroughly angered, to discover authoritarian, legalistic, generation of adults who (had controlled our every thought and being) didn't even have their own act together! Only then, these adults were deacons, Sunday School teachers, and like ... with a different code of ethics in workplace. Evidently, all that lust and greed wasn’t answer, because they still aren't truly happy. Now, my youngest is having her first experience in workforce and she, thoroughly, loathes her job ... not because of employers or even co-workers, but customers. It isn't just an occasional cranky old biddy. As she says, "Mom, it's all of them!" Customers make same purchases, over and over, with same gripes. She's in food business. So, there is pre-knowledge that food will taste same, be wrapped same way, customers will be charged same ... every time. My daughter questions, "If they really don't like our product, why don't they go somewhere else?" Evidently, customers do like product, as this store is a multi-million dollar business. Though, multitudes do appear unhappy, as retailers well know. Maybe we can keep it all neatly tucked, take it out on clerks and waitresses, none wiser. Now, that's a plan!
| | Dare to be DifferentWritten by Joyce C. Lock
The more we discover who God is, more we come to realize there is no opinion of value, apart from God, in even simplest of matters. For example: How many times have we had a profound thought, considering it of no importance to write it down; keeping it until its divine purpose is revealed? There is many a poet, song writer, or author whose gift God is trying to awaken, to use for Him; God's effort being cheapened due to low opinions of ourselves. I don't know of anyone who respects a writer, thinking him a loafer, except he has actually been published. Try to get a loan, or a common job, listing occupation as ‘writer’. Apply for a writing position and most likely question will be, "Where did you get your education, or training?" People snub male writers, thinking it a sick excuse to avoid society or work (unless they are, already, bringing in big bucks). If one keeps a diary, television tells us it will be full of dark secrets that will only come back to haunt us. When a child finds pleasure in recording their thoughts, we, sometimes, impatiently await them outgrowing it. Knowing one who keeps meticulous books, records, and ledgers (except it be their job or it directly benefits us); we tend to think them a neat freak, obsessive, or weird. Where do we get these ideas of what is important, or acceptable, and what is not? How do we get gall to look down on people different from us? When did we start thinking God could not use people, without degrees, or that money is proof of God's calling? And, who made our opinion authority, anyway?
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