Losing Sight of What's in Your Toy Box

An associate from work reminded me of something that I had not thought of recently. As part of my weekly routine, I print and distribute full work schedules to each individual employee in addition to the “store copy“ of the schedule which gets posted in the backroom of our store. I think of these individual copies as “refrigerator copies,” because my intent is for each associate to have a copy at home to refer to since their work schedules vary from week to week.

Not only do the copies provide them with a view of their own schedule, it also allows them to see everyone’s schedule for the week. This becomes very useful when an associate needs to make an unexpected change after the schedule has been posted, as sometimes happens. Typically, my associates will take the initiative to work out a “fix” between themselves, to insure that the schedule is covered, by seeing who can fill in for them. Once they have it worked out, they then approach me for approval of the plan. (In case you didn’t recognize it, that’s called Teamwork! And, yes, I am very blessed to have a wonderful team of individuals working with me!)

The other day while I was distributing next week’s schedule, one of my associates said that she didn’t need her schedule, because her schedule doesn’t change very much from one week to the next. Since I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to have a little fun, I pretended to be highly offended and even went as far as to white-out her name on her copy and make it the “store copy.” Upon realizing what I was doing she changed her mind and began to plead with me that she needed her copy so she could see who she was working with. I assured her it was too late now, and threw in a little mocking of her saying that she didn’t need her schedule. She became so desperate to have a copy that when I wasn’t looking, she took my own copy, crossed out my name and put her name on it!

Now, understand that this was all done in fun. But it did cause me to consider how often we take for granted things that we have, until we see them being taken away from us. We are just like a little kid, who’s mom is going through his toy box getting rid of long forgotten toys. He stands there looking at her in disbelief because he can’t believe that his mom would be asking him to part with such a treasured item! How quickly we lose sight of how blessed we are until those blessings are being pulled from us.

So, today, do your best to not take for granted that you are loved, sheltered, fed and clothed. Or that you live in a country where you get to decided much of your path, rather than having it decided for you. And just take some time to do an inventory of what you do have, rather than always looking at what you do not have. I’m sure you’ll come away feeling very blessed. I know I do, already!