Saying "Thank You"

I was sitting in a drive-thru the other day when I had an epiphany. Well - I don't know if it was actually an epiphany, but it was to me. I had a rather large order and to top it all off, I had a combination of "specialty" items such as "everything except for pickle, no ketchup, light ranch instead of regular, a cup filled with just ice.." You know - I was that irritating customer that we all know and LOVE... :)

Because I have had such poor service at some of these drive-thru's (Rebels excluded, of course) and because I don't have much faith in the entire customer service industry (shame on me!) I had already decided that I would NOT get just what I wanted (Yes, I am one of THOSE people who will sit moments after receiving my food to make sure everything I ordered is in the bag - right down to opening up sandwich wrap to take a look at the actual item).

I was very surprised when I got up to the window and the kind gentleman read me back everything on my order - WITHOUT looking at his screen and included every specification I asked for. I am sure by the look on my face he could tell that I was a little stunned but what he didn't know was that he had indeed won over a customer for life based on that one experience and trust me and let me tell you to win me over in the customer service arena, is hard to do!

I thanked him when he handed me my food but here is where the epiphany comes in. I didn't just say "Thank you" which would be the obvious response to someone who just handed me my order, but instead I said "Thank you for remembering my order so accurately!" He seemed to beam from this thank you - I think I really made his day.

So I got to thinking that we need to be more specific with our thank you's. I have really been working on this a lot this week. When someone calls me back instead of saying thank you, I now try to say "Thanks so much for getting back with me so quickly". When someone helps out in ministry for my church at that last minute I will now say "Thank you for your service you are such a blessing to this team!" I truly believe that being as specific with our gratitude as possible will bless the people receiving it. I am going to try my hardest to really work on this in my daily life - how about you?

Thank God for our children!

So I was having a really bad day a couple weeks ago. I was really down in the dumps and trying not to let it show on my face when I picked my daughter, Chloe, up from Kindergarten. Just seeing her little face light up when I entered her classroom really made me feel a lot better in and of itself. She brings me such joy and that alone would have been enough to make my day better. But it's what she did in the moments that followed, that really warmed my heart!

As we typically do when we get inside the car after I pick her up at the end of her long day, we began talking about her day and all of the things that she had done at school. On this particular day, she was really not all that interested in talking. I guess she wanted to sing. It is WHAT she sang to me that put my day into perspective. She began softly, "When we fall down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus. The greatness of His mercy and love at the feet of Jesus!" Boy - was that what I needed to hear or what! What gave me the right to think I could handle all that days' stress by myself? What my daughter was teaching me in this musical lesson was simple - Lay it all at Jesus' feet and HE will take care of all my needs! I realized that I had tried to deal with all of my hurt and pain and frustration alone and what I needed to do was give it straight to Jesus and He would take care of everything.

Many of you know the rest of that song.. "And we cry Holy, Holy, Holy and we cry Holy, Holy, Holy and we cry Holy, Holy, Holy is the lamb!" She was really belting it out by this time and HOLY's sounded more like Howls. :) It was great! Little did she know - she had taught her mom a lesson that day. And through my tears I joined in with her....

"When we fall down, we lay our crowns, at the feet of Jesus.
The greatness of His mercy and love at the feet of Jesus!
and we cry holy, holy, holy... and we cry holy, holy, holy... and we cry holy, holy, holy
is the lamb!"

Thank you, Chloe!