When the phone rang I recognized the caller i.d. to be my boss' cell phone. "I'm here at the courthouse but I'm the only attorney here. Are you sure you have the right date on my calendar?" My heart sank for just a moment because I had only worked for him for just a few weeks. I was still trying to find my way and figure things out and me sending him to a county in south Alabama on the wrong day wasn't a problem I was wanting to deal with.
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"Ummm, yes, this is the right date" I stammered.
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"Well, you need to find out what is going on" he said with a flustered tone in his voice. Which, I completely understood! As he was talking I began to click through the files trying to figure out what was going on. He continued, "I had to leave my house at 4:00 this morning just to be here by 9:00 and now there is nobody..." His voice sort of faded into the background as I realized that I had sent him to the wrong county! I had the right date, the right time but the wrong place!
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My heart began to beat so fast I thought it was going to beat out of my chest. I swallowed and interrupted his tirade and softly said "You're supposed to be in Montgomery County..." I sat there waiting for his response and let's just say response is most definitely what I got. He hit the roof! And, I can't say that I blame him. But nonetheless it was a frightening experience. By the end of it all I was crying, he was yelling and nothing seemed to be fixing the problem.
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All was well in the end though. I called the Judge (who was a sweet grandfather type man) in the "right" county, had his legal assistant pull him off the bench and I begged and cried and pleaded with him explaining my stupidity. He, however, was good as gold. He reassured me this wasn't the worst thing in the world I could have done and gave me instructions for my boss which I quickly relayed to him.
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For the remainder of my employment with this particular attorney I stayed on my toes. I was ever conscious of making a mistake and having to deal with his explosive reactions. We all come in contact with people who can make it difficult for us to just do our normal routines. Maybe it is our boss or our spouse or maybe it's our children but there are those people that make us feel as though we can't do anything right.
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"Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work." Ezra 4:4 (NLT). Now, I'm not a Bible scholar and I surely don't know what this entire story is about but, when I read this passage it meant alot to me. This passage gave me courage to keep my head down and forge ahead. I'm going to come in contact with tons of people who try to discourage me and frighten me but, it is up to me if I allow them to succeed. See, I have work to do here on this earth and it is up to ME to get it done...not them! I choose to allow someone else's words, actions, explosive personality, etc. to dictate how I handle a situation. What about you? Do you allow the local residents to discourage and frighten you?
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