The humbled servant

"The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be raised up." Matthew 23:11-12

Last summer, I decided to take a housekeeping job in a condominium by the beach.

I was so excited about it because I thought it would be awesome to do something that I don't need to use my brains to do my job. Compared to what I used to do as a secretary and a teacher and now as a site leader/child-care provider, I thought housekeeping will be an easy-breezy job.

I thought it won't require any effort to accomplish my task since it doesn't involve any excellent written and verbal communication skills to clean the toilet. It doesn't need any mathematical abilities to fold laundry. And it doesn't require any educational background to vacuum the floors.

I thought it would be a cool job for the summer because the workplace is just right there at the beach. I planned to spend some "me" time at the beach after work lying on my beach towel reading a book and people watching while sipping a strawberry smoothie. That didn't happen.

I lasted only 2 days in the job. I got sick. And came home crying at the end of the day. It was such a hard work. Cleaning rooms is hard work. I thought it was easy because for me it's just a chore. All my expectations of myself went down the drain and my admiration and respect for the people who do this for a job went up the ceiling.

Though I never look down on people who do manual labor, I never given it a thought that their job is indeed hard work until I took the job. Though I don't discriminate people whose job involved physical labor, I don't highly look at it as important until I found myself in their shoes. And though I had never dream of doing chores for the rest of my life, I do believe that housekeeping is an important skill to keep the house runs smoothly.

Prayers

Lord, thank you for giving me the strength to do my job

but most importantly, for giving me job no matter how small or big it is

Help me to find inspiration from the people who do hard work

and appreciate their contributions no matter how small or big they are. Amen.

Spiritual Musing Sunday

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Orange

Orange is not just a color. It is not just a fruit. It is a characteristics that also means - happiness or harvest or blessings or yummy.

- Ruthi Orona-Gregoire -

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Subject Matter: Rules

just had a thought of you.. Before, I was asking myself even other people why you hated me, why you were so mean to me. Then as time goes by and as I’m growing older, I realized that I was stubborn, and blinded to see what’s your real intention. I realized you didn’t want to do those things to me, you just needed to. You want me and everyone to be prepared on what to come. I was able to apply things I’ve learned from you and I’m still applying them. You’re one of the people whom I consider my treasured mentor. So I think its never too late to say ‘Thank you’.. So thank you Ma’am. Continue inspiring and spreading thoughts to others even those being learned the hard way. Sooner or later, they will realize you’re just doing it out of concern and for their betterment just like what you did to me! Take care!

… it was a message I got on my “wall” in my Facebook. It was from a former student who happens to be a relative too. It was something I didn’t see coming.

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As a teacher, I consider myself strict. As a strict teacher, I consider myself brutally strict. I can’t help it. I was raised by a disciplinarian. However, I am not really proud of it.

As a teacher, I expect my students to follow rules. But I know how hard it is especially when you are young and foolish. I was once young and foolish but even then I always have some reservations on certain things because my mom set some boundaries. But still it didn’t stop me to break some rules. And I am not really proud of it, either.

As a teacher, I knew my students had a hard time dealing with me. I knew how scared they were every time I entered the classroom. And I knew some  of them surely had wet their pants when I started calling out names from my index cards. But I certainly not proud of it, too.

As a teacher, sure I was strict. But then if you are my students you don’t have to worry about anything if you just know how to follow rules. Rules are not made to make things easier but rather to make things right. Rules are not drawn to punish a person who break them but rather to avoid punishment all together. And rules are not written to accommodate the person who implements them but rather to execute proper guidelines. And trust me... those who follow the rules turned out to be the persons that I hope them to be. And, I'M PROUD OF IT!

Ruthilicious... absent in the Classroom, present in the Chatroom. She blogs when she is NOT Facebooking doing chores and she blogs while she is ALSO Facebooking doing chores.

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