Christian Values in the Workplace By Coreen Trost

I’m a small-town girl with Christian values and high morals.  Ok, not a young girl, as a matter of fact, my children are all grown, and I no longer live in a small-town, but that’s where my story begins. I always considered myself a Christian mom while raising my sons with the values that were not only taught at home but in the church that we attended weekly as a family. 

The church I’m referring to was back in my hometown, the same one I attended as a young person and learned the values I still have today.  This church was where I taught Sunday School and all three of my boys were confirmed as Christians after attending 3 years of confirmation classes. While they were growing up and learning right from wrong, both at home and in school, this church assisted me in reinforcing those Christian values. 

What are Christian values?  Historically, the term Christian values refer to the teaching of Jesus and taught by Christians throughout religion history. A Christian, which I consider myself, is a person who believes in God and tries to follow the Christian teachings of Jesus.  I say ‘tries’ because no one on this Earth is perfect; we all make mistakes and even fail at times. 

Christian values to me are something we should all strive for in our everyday life.  These include hope, righteousness, love, being kind to one another, having compassion and empathy for those in need, and putting God first.  Evidence of someone having, or not having these values come from our deeds and actions.  These deeds, actions, and treatment of others are not only in one’s personal life, but in our businesses and community involvement.

Sweet Old Fisherman...

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"Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin.  It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too." ~Frederick Buechner

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The following story is true and shared from Karin's blog "Yesterday, Today and Forever ~ Jesus is the Same".   I hope no one has dry eyes with this one....

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of   Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.  We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out-patients at the clinic.   

One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door.  I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.  "Why, he's hardly taller than my 8-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body.  But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.  

Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening.  I've come to see if you've a room for just one night.  I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."   

He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room.  "I guess it's my face .... I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments .."  

For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch.  My bus leaves early in the morning." I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch..  I went inside and finished getting supper.  When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us.  "No, thank you.  I have plenty."  And he held up a  brown paper bag. 

  

When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes.  It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.  He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her 5 children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury. 

He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was preface with a thanks to God for a blessing.  He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer.  He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going... 

And, on his next trip, he arrived a little after 7 in the morning.  As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen!  He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh.  I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. And I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.   

In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.  

At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him.  When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment?  I won't put you out a bit.  I can sleep fine in a chair."  He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home.  Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I told him he was welcome to come again.  

Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed.  Knowing that he must walk 3 miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious. 

When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. "Did you keep that awful looking man last night?  I turned him away!  You can lose roomers by putting up such people!" Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice.  But, oh!, if only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear. 

I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God. Recently I was visiting a friend, who has a greenhouse, as she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms.  But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket.  I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!" 

My friend changed my mind.  "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail.  It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden." She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. "Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman.  "He won't mind starting in this small body." All this happened long ago - and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.   I hope no one forgets that Sweet Old Fisherman and the lessons for us all in his story.

"The LORD does not look at the things man looks at..  

Man looks at the outward appearance, 

but the LORD looks at the heart." 

1 Samuel 16:7b

Forgetting my reason.............

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It has been rough the past month.  We've had many trials and stresses, along with numerous changes in our lives.  Many were support systems or people that have left for one reason or another.

This past week, especially has been life changing.  However, I am at a place in my life where I turn all the situations I experience as lessens and grow from them when ever possible.

Since this month and week was particularly tough for me, I turned to some wonderful, caring friends to uplift me.  It of course helped immediately because they are all so caring, loving, understanding and supportive.  I also trusted them because they accept me, emotions and all, and truly know my heart and intentions in life.  I feel they all have the same heart and soul as I do or I would not have never opened up to them.  I am so very grateful to have them in my life, even if they are all so far way.  I know they are only a state, a phone call, an email or a 'blog' away. 

As I was getting much needed advice and encouragement this week, I was told many times to keep writing in my journal and to blog about what's on my heart and effecting my journey in this life.  The one think I have always prayed for, will eventually bring me to my hearts desires.  It reminded  me that I had forgotten my original reason for blogging.  To tell my stories, open my heart and let it pour out, in the hopes of helping others. 

It turned out when I first started doing that though, it helped me continue to grow and heal even faster than ever before.  I realize, and was told last week by 2 of my best friends (& angels),  that I am not the same person I was 2 years ago and not even 10 months ago.   They both said that they had seen the most healing, growth and self-love in me over the last 10 months.  How nice of them to share that outside opinion with me!  They are so right too!!

I will continue to focus on the positives in my life and post my most popular Friday "Happiness" posts.  However I am also going to remember the reason I started my blog in the first place.  Writing in the hope of helping other people with my 'true life stories'! 

I am going to include some of my journal entries like before and write about the things that are dear to  my heart and drive my passions in life.  Letting you all into my inner self once again. 

I hope you will all continue to join me on my journey and share my heart felt post with someone who may need to know also.  Reminding them that they are 'never' alone in their struggles, trials or heartache!

I love you all, both in my blogging world of friends and those who have known me for a long time and read my journey on Facebook.  Thank you!!  

BIG HUG!
~ Coreen

Love Manual.....please

I've been waiting for the right man to come along for quite a while now. I've grown and figured out who I am. I've rejected the wrong men and learned what the good ones should be like. I've put myself out there trying to find true love and been hurt and even embarrassed a few times. 

However this time, I feel totally different. A calm inside of me from being absolutely certain that he is the 'One' capable of loving me and appreciative of genuine love in return. The one whose own heart, soul, character, and ability to love is a perfect match to my own.

I agree with the understanding that taking your time will season a relationship and make it even better later on. But after a while you start to think 'Life is too Short" to wait too long. So when is the right time and who should make the first move?  An even harder question is who should say the 'love' word first? 

I understand that everyone has other things in their life that occupy their time. Jobs, kids, homes, and other responsibilities and stresses. But you don't want the right one to slip away because they didn't think you were interested. Or to run away if you scare them by being too forward too soon.

I've never had a problem in the last 5 years, just walking away from men, because I knew they weren't the one. But what do you do when you think they are? How much time do you give things to work out?

Can someone please give me a love manual to follow, so I don't make any mistakes?  A love manual for the great relationship I am so longing for and finally believe I deserve....please!