The Big Picture

"Let Adversity Make You A Better Person"

This past couple of weeks I’ve had a lot of time to lay awake at night and do some thinking.  I’ve thought about all of this before, but as 1 a.m. became 2 a.m. and so on until 5 or 6 a.m. I was able to organize my thoughts a little more on this subject and decided I would put it on my web page.

In the fall of 1999 it became apparent that I needed to go out looking for a job to help support our family again.  Of course my goal was to find the best paying job with the best benefits, and it would be nice to find something that I would enjoy doing too.  I applied several places but was called in for an interview at the potato processing plant here in town.  They were looking for a full time Human Resources Manager.  I had the experience, and the pay and benefits were awesome.  It looked very promising.  But alas, I was not chosen for that position.   

A couple of days later I got a call from Ricks College and they had a part time secretary position available.  Well, with my blinders on, I thought “well, cool, I suppose I will take it.  At least it’s a job”.  It’s a good thing that “Someone” else was watching out for me and my family and could see “The Big Picture”.

I started out as a part time secretary, answering phones.  I remember walking by the lady that put the catalog together and thinking “wow, wouldn’t that be something to be able to put the catalog together!”  Have you ever heard the phrase “be careful what you wish for?”  Well, be careful what you even think about.  I remember my boss talking to me about the course syllabus.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  Ya see when it was my turn to graduate from high school, it really “wasn’t important” for me to get an education.  “The money wasn’t there for it.”  So working in the Academic Department at the college, many of the terms they used were very foreign to me.

Within 6 months though, I was full time in the Academic Department and right in the middle of the 2 year college changing over to a 4 year University, BYU-Idaho.  My boss continued to give me more and more responsibilities and I loved it!  I learned what a syllabus was and it’s not a silly bus that you drive (heh), and guess what…….I ended up being the one that put the catalog together.  I don’t know for sure if that was a blessing sometimes, but I loved it too.  

I continued to receive more and more responsibilities and gained more and more confidence and it was the best job I ever could have been given.  But as I lay there in the middle of the night thinking about all of this, it was way more than just “me” that was being taken care of here. 

Because of my job, Jeff could get a tuition waiver and so he went back to school and got his Associates Degree in Ag Mechanics and then was hired on full time at BYU-Idaho working on the busses.  My kids got a tuition waiver which has allowed them to be able to get a good start on their education.  The health care benefits have been amazing, which without them I don’t know what we would have done.  With my health problems and the different things that Jeff and the kids have had done, we just couldn’t have paid for it. 

 

So, when you sit in your little chair looking straight ahead with your blinders on and think “dang, why didn’t I get that job?”  Or, “why is this happening to me?”……sometimes we don’t see THE BIG PICTURE until we  are able to look back on it and see how it was painted, but the Creator, the One who knows all, sees what we cannot see.  He helps us make those little turns on the path in our lives that the blind spots would make impossible for us to get around.  And wow, there is no other way to get from point A to point B without that help.  

Thank you for watching over me and mine.  I know You are there!
Watching out for Me 

Until next time!  Becky