This is a blog of praise for turning corners. This afternoon my husband turned a corner after being sick for the past two days with a severe headache and high blood pressure. A trip to the ER yesterday earned him some IV pain meds and some assorted tests that were, by God's grace, all negative.
Still, this morning he had so much pain he wanted to go back to the ER again. We agreed to wait an hour to make a decision and I prayed fervently for God to give us a clear answer about what to do. He slept for two hours and woke up feeling better. Praise God for answered prayer and a corner turned.
I feel I've turned a corner, too, in my Operation Christmas Child leadership life. Lately I've been able to think about leadership without struggling so much. I started to read a book on leadership by John Maxwell last week and my initial reaction was my usual depression. The bar is always set so high it seems unattainable. No matter how hard I try I could never succeed in being the leader I should be.
The good news, though, is I was able to talk some truth to myself and decide to find one thing from my reading I could apply. If I can make even one small step toward being a better leader it will be better than allowing Satan to defeat me. I believe the prayers of others are a part of that.
I'm also starting to realize I can't do this forever--at least the hauling and carrying part that makes up the packing party. I spend time with an older friend and mentor twenty years my senior. When I told her this week that I worry my strength is failing she chuckled, shook her head, and told me she thinks I have a few good decades left. It's all relative, I know.
Still, on Tuesday afternoon after loading twenty bags of donated sandals with thick rubber soles into my minivan I was pretty tired. I've kept up with running and workout routines, but I notice the difference in stamina from even a few years ago.
Another job of this week has been counting out jump rope handles and cut rope and bundling it into plastic totes. Each tote contains the supplies to make 200 jump ropes. On Monday as I hefted three totes into my car to drive them to a volunteer, I pondered how many trips it will take to drive these around town. Maybe I should have just waited until spring and tried to have some work days at the church to save myself some effort. It's a constant juggling game to try to figure out how to do things efficiently while still involving other people.
On Wednesday we got a storm that dropped a foot of snow and forced the cancellation of two training sessions with new team members. I guess that was for the best anyway since we spent four hours in the ER and I also got to shovel the sidewalk and driveway twice.
Being home today gave me a chance to haul the bags of sandals in from the car and get them packed into cartons for storage. There were a total of 447 pairs in those boxes now surrounding the dining room table. With subzero temps forecast for the weekend I might have to wait until next week to get them stored in the container.
I also spent a few hours watching the series of High Impact volunteer training videos on the OCC Extranet site. Surprisingly, I found them pretty inspirational.
Yes, I do believe we've turned some corners.
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