Giving up time for others

     There's a story of a woman who was once asked at work if she can come in on a day that they had scheduled her off. Now they asked her this about a week in advance.

     The woman was not told why they wanted her to come in. She asked the manager what time should she be at work and what time would she be scheduled to leave.

     The manager gave her a short shift, just "Ten am till Two pm" she replied.

     The woman hearing this agreed to come in because it was only for a short shift and she could leave work at an early time.

     A few days later, the manager came up to the woman again and asked her if instead of coming in at ten am till two pm, if she can come in at eight am till one pm.

     Again the woman agreed thinking to herself that now she can leave an hour earlier and have more time for herself once she gets home. 

     The day before she was to come in, she was at home getting ready to go to sleep when she received a text on her cell phone from a co-worker telling her that she can come in at ten am if she wanted to.

     The woman asked her co-worker: "If i come in at ten am, what time should i leave?"

     The co-worker sent her a text back saying: "Three pm."

     The co-worker then says that another co-worker who was originally scheduled for the same day wanted to go home early tomorrow and that's why she wanted the woman to come in later so she can leave later.

     The woman then replies, asking that if she comes in earlier, then that means she can leave earlier?

     The co-worker relies with yes.

     The woman at this point starts to get a little frustrated, deciding whether she should come in earlier and leave earlier or if she should come in later and leave later so her co-worker can leave earlier.

     As she decides, she starts to think, "Well i wasn't originally suppose to work on this day and now they want me to come in later just so my co-worker who was suppose to work can go home early!"

     The woman didn't want to leave later because she also had some plans that she had not been able to take care of yet because she's been working everyday and was suppose to use the day off that they asked her to come in on to catch up with her work.

     She then decides that she will come in at eight am and leave at one pm so the next morning that is exactly what she sets her mind to. she wakes up and gets ready for work.

     As she's driving to work, she gets a thought. 

     "I rather come in early and leave early so i can have more time for myself and my needs."

     Thinking that last part in her head, she then starts to feel selfish for her decision because in this situation, she could have given up her time for someone else instead of herself. Through out the whole time, she only cared about her needs and wants but didn't even try to think of her co-worker.

     With that still in her mind, as she's still driving to work, she makes a turn and heads on home. She then sends a text to her co-worker, telling her that she will come in at ten am.

This may have been only a small example of giving up our time and needs for someone else but i found it to still be a valuable example to learn from. We can be so selfish sometimes and so greedy that we only care for our own benefit. 

We constantly think of ourselves and what's best for us. God doesn't want us to put ourselves first. It's written;

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4.

God told us to humble ourselves yet we often ignore that and think we only need to do the bigger things for God and not even care for the little acts we can do on a daily basis. 

We don't have to completely give up our homes and vehicles in order to help someone or to do a good deed. Sometimes we just need to do a little act even if we aren't appreciated for it. We may never know why that co-worker wanted to go home early. Maybe she just wanted to spend time with her family and have fun or maybe she had some important things to take care of. 

But even when we don't know the whole picture, God does. He wants us to be humble and act like Jesus would.

Don't be afraid to give someone your time because sometimes that can be more valuable then money and presents and little acts can sometimes touch someones heart more then big acts.

 God Bless and Thanks for reading!

-The Hidden Geek-

                

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