|
Feeling resentful at first, this worker cooled down with forgiveness.
It was not fair! For the fifth week in a row I was being asked to do all the unpleasant jobs that no one enjoyed doing, and were usually shared among the team of workers. It was hot and sticky, and feeling resentful was not helping me feel any cooler!
To make matters worse the next job on the schedule was to go into the kitchen and serve twenty plates of food!
I really did not feel that I wished to dish up resentment for dinner - that would not be fair to the guests. So I thought I would just have to forgive the supervisor for the putting me down for all those duties yet again. Then it occurred to me that I was not really working for her anyway, but to express spiritual qualities.
Peter asked Jesus how many times he needed to forgive his brother, “’till seven times? No until seventy times seven,” Jesus replied.
Well, I thought, I have not forgiven that many times yet. I was determined to make the food on the plates as attractive as I could, and to add things like mustard when it was appropriate. I got on with the work with a song and the time sped by.
When the kitchen supervisor, a different one, came in, I told her how I had been feeling, and how I was now happy in the job. She said at once that the kitchen staff was always glad when I was plating up because of the consideration that I brought to the job. Well, that made me glad, too, but I was never again given an unfair assignment as long as I worked there.
After work I looked up “forgive” in the dictionary and found it meant “giving up claim to.”
Really, in the big scheme of things, this was a very little experience; however I learned a huge lesson and found my ability to forgive was much strengthened, and I had seen how an unfair situation could be turned around by changing my own thinking.
|
