Travel Notes

Well, if you follow me on facebook, you know that today was quite the adventure as far as our travel goes.  We returned to the United States through Miami last night from our mission trip to Haiti.  I'll be blogging about that soon.  Our flight was to leave Miami this morning at 6:20 and I should've been in Lubbock by 10:30 am.  After many twists, turns, and tears, our family was all reunited about 7:00 pm.  If you really want to hear the details, comment, and I'll try to make it interesting for you.  I kept looking for a reason for all of the situations that arose today.  I don't know yet if I realized the reason, but I feel like I did learn a few lessons that I am going to apply to ministry, family, work, and all of my relationships.  I am no business guru, but it didn't take much for me to recognize the problems experienced today were definately on a business level.  So I jotted a few notes that I will share with you and hopefully you too will glean something from our "experience."

*If you're the boss, be the boss!  Communicate to your members expectations, outcomes, directions, etc...  Make sure your members know what is going on.
*If you're not the boss, don't be the boss!  Don't make decisions or give false information that you aren't authorized to give.
(Let me apologize in advance if there are a plethora of !!!!!  I'm a little worked up)
*I really can walk/run barefoot on a dirty floor no matter what my mind is saying about the germs I am picking up.
*Cooper will be fully prepared to handle any travel arrangement necessities when needed.
*Companies lose/gain business by their service, not their product.  I can (and will) find a better product with better service when needed.
(ok, I'm trying not to preach here and let you apply these tidbits for yourself.  So hard....)
*Attitude is reflective of leadership.  It was obvious that someone at the top of Ame_ican Air_ines is very grouchy and in-flexible.  This is apparent through every employee that we encounted at every stop - ticket agents, boarding agents, flight attendents....   right down to our very own luggage handlers here in Lubbock.  (I'm sorry, I was trying to keep it general, but.....)  This also works the other way - Cooper and I realized we weren't going to make the flight.  We had a moment, but pulled ourselves together and chose the attitude of "We can do this.  Let's go."  Which brings me to my next one.
*There is always a savior to come to your rescue.  Mine happened to come in the form of my husband today who abandoned the team and stayed with us. (Again -your personal application :))
*Boy scouts have bug bites and long hair.
*Bigger isn't always better - I'll take FLL over MIA anyday.
*Don't assume it's always the customers (others) fault when something goes wrong.  Sometimes it's faulty routines or regulations.  I realize that some of those can't be changed, but I'll bet they can be adjusted if you give a little effort.  It's called compromise.
*And lastly - just be nice.  You never know what kind of a day someone is having.  Sometimes they just need a break.

I trust I can treat my family, my students, my co-workers and clients, and all other relationships with the respect and sensitivity that I needed today. 
Let me know what you think.

Tori