the blessing of joy..

At work today, I was working with this lady who's in an algebra class. We were working on inequalities and all that fun stuff (do you sense the sarcasm? the "fun" stuff... haha. but I really don't mind helping with it) but in working with this lady, I noticed something. No matter what I tried to tell her or help her see and understand, she had an excuse. It was just like she was determined to complain and have a bad attitude about her homework. Yes, it is some really time-consuming and frustrating stuff. But... why not make the best of it? I fail to see the point of having a negative attitude... So maybe you don't enjoy math. I don't. It's just not my thing. I'd so much rather have my nose in a good book or have my fingers on the piano keys. That is just me. But even when we don't enjoy something, we can still have joy throughout it. When we have a negative attitude and just complain about everything we can dream of, it makes us so hard to get along with. People have an incredibly difficult time working with us, because we make it difficult.

My point here is not to criticize this lady who I was tutoring, but rather to find some good from the situation I had today. I had to find a way to still have a good attitude and be joyful and smile, even when she was so discouraging me. Just before working with her, I'd worked with a young guy, and he made every effort to listen and understand what I told him about the various kinds of problems. His whole mindset was completely opposite of the mindset the lady I was helping out had. When he didn't understand something... he would talk through it with me until he did understand, and he read each problem carefully. I enjoyed working with him, because he appreciated the help. They both technically came into the Learning Center for help with their math, but in reality, only the guy really wanted help.

After I got off of work, I got to talk for a few minutes with one of my dear friends... That would encourage me anytime, but since I knew that phone call was coming, it gave me something to really look forward to as I sat there trying to work with the difficult student. So anyway, I guess my point is... make the effort to have joy. Find a way to be a blessing to others. Who wants to be a discouragement for others? It is so much more fun to be a blessing, to be joyful.

Joy to you all.