Good mornings make for good mornings...

Way back when I was working on my Bachelor of Science in business administration, I took a morning job at Sheetz as the coffee hostess. It was Mon - Fri, 6am to 9am. It involved making many pots of coffee, making fancy coffee drinks,  keeping things clean and well-stocked, and being a friendly face. This was back when Sheetz still had rows of pots. I had homeschooled my kids, was teaching fitness classes and personal training, but I wanted something on my resume that showed recent customer service experience. God blessed me with a great manager who was extremely helpful with information and direction for my marketing classes. He also gave me a great assistant manager who I could talk politics with, as well as a team of fun, friendly co-workers. I was shocked when my sister told me she thought the job was "beneath" me - nothing is beneath anyone. Any honest work for honest pay is admirable. I believe that "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might," and to "whatever you do in word of deed, do it all for the glory of God."  This was, and I'm quite serious, one of the most fun jobs I have ever had. One thing I took very seriously was the responsibility of being a friendly face. You have no idea how many people start their days in a bad way and a smile, a kind word, or a combination of both can really turn their day around. I made it a point to be the bearer of those gifts, to try to get to know people, and to make the most of those 3 hours each weekday morning.  Fast forward a few years and I've got  Master's degree and I'm teaching school.  Guess what my morning duty is? For 30 minutes every day it's standing at the top of the 2nd/3rd grade stairwell to make sure there is no tomfoolery on the stairs as the kids come in to the school, head down to the free breakfast, and come back up to get started on morning work. But it is more to me - and I take this very seriously - I have the opportunity to greet each of those students with a friendly smile and a kind word and hopefully, help them start their day on the right track.  You can see when they come up those stairs who is already having a bad day, who is already off to a good start, who didn't get enough sleep, or who might need encouraging.  I take this just as seriously as lesson-planning.  There are enough people in these kids' lives to yell at them, what they might need is someone who is happy to see them when they arrive. I have to discovered in this first week that while I could keep the stairs safe by yelling and barking orders, I can do a BETTER job keeping the stairs safe y being a welcoming presence and  kindly and firmly enforcing the rules. Today was day 6 of this duty and I'm already seeing not just a difference in stairwell behavior but in how a smile can be contagious or encouraging.  Proverbs 12:25 says, "Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up." Proverbs 16:24 states, "Kind words are like honey—sweet to the soul and healthy for the body."