Working at Papa John's has definitely made me a better person. I always used to have a bit of a rebellious spirit. For example, I haven't always been good about keeping my car registration up to date, and that was wrong. In my last marriage my ex husband wanted me to stop buying things on Amazon but I refused to stop buying things on Amazon, which really is a big reason why we are divorced now. It's possible that my over spending was one thing that made him go legitimately insane. The reason why I did that though was that I didn't really respect him. I always viewed him as being far less intelligent then me, so I felt I had a reason to not respect him. But I should have never married him in the first place if I knew I wouldn't be able to respect him.
I have had a hard time respecting anyone my entire life. Partly because I think I'm smarter then everyone else, or more godly, or more attractive etc. I have had a lot of pride my whole life over my gifts that I know God gave me, but I felt I had reason to feel prideful over them. And God has always blessed me and provided for me well, so I had pride over that. That is partly why I have smoked over the past year, to keep me humble. :) It reminds me that I'm not perfect. It's good to try to live perfectly, but if it makes you an arrogant asshole, maybe you should try not being "perfect" for awhile so you can be more humble.
Mainly I had a hard time respecting people because both my dad and mom were not very respectable people. My dad molested me as a child a lot. He acted like a Christian but then he did that, so I had very little respect for him because he was just a pretender. He was a huge liar. I always saw him as a con artist. I saw my mom as almost an equally giant hypocrite because she lost her temper with me several times. I think people don't realize how much you loose respect with others when you loose your temper with them.
So I grew up having a hard time respecting adults. Although in school I respected a TON almost every teacher I had. I suppose that's why I wanted to teach for so long, because I was thinking those are the only adult people in society that are respected. But then I tried teaching Junior High students one year and my students did NOT respect me half of the time, which was very hard. :( Maybe God was giving me a dose of my own medicine. I was reaping what I sowed. So needless to say that made me give up on the dream of teaching.
In some of my jobs I have had a hard time respecting my boss and co-workers. But my level for what I expect of others in order for me to respect them is pretty high and probably unrealistic. I suppose I am a perfectionist in that. It takes a lot for me to respect a person. I always used to love the quote "Respect is not given, it is earned." And it should be, but our level of what we need to respect a person maybe shouldn't be as high as we think it should be.
But praise God, I finally have found a group of people that I greatly respect. I have a very, Very high respect for everyone that I work with at Papa John's. I posted on Twitter once that you haven't really worked until you have worked at a pizza place on a Friday night. The amount of stress you have to deal with on a Friday night, and a few other nights, is unlike any other stress you can face in life. And I know because I have worked in several Pre-schools, gone through labor twice and been thousands of dollars in debt, but none of that compares with a Friday night at Papa Johns. :) You feel like you are making dinner for the entire city you live in, and then after all that you do, people still aren't grateful. So many people complain about so many things, but all my co-workers take it like champs. I look up to them all a lot for that. Their level of patience and understanding and forgiveness is Amazing. They have asked me a few time to be a manager but I don't think I would have the patience to deal with complaining customers. I literally would just want to say to people, "Deal with it and stop whining. At least we made you food. Goodbye." :) So that's why I'm not a manager. I'm just a driver, but I love being a driver. :)
But I respect a LOT all the patient and loving people I work with that put up with all that and can still stay calm. Most of the time they stay calm anyways. :) Good job Papa John's friends!
The level of forgiveness all my co-workers have is so amazing. We all have to forgive each other so much every day for so many things. And the managers have to forgive the customers for being difficult a...holes so often.
So it has made me a much better person working there, from observing everyone I work with and wanting to emulate them.
At first I didn't respect the job that much. I always thought, "This is just pizza. We aren't running the country." But the longer I've been there, the more I have seen how hard it really is, and I have strived to do my job with excellence and to do everything perfectly. I had kind of a rebellious and an "I'm better than you" attitude when I started there, like that job was beneath me, as I have felt with most jobs I've had, but God has greatly grown my humility in this time.
Don't ever consider ANY job to be beneath you. Any of us are very lucky to have jobs now, with the world the way it is. So value your job. Value your co-workers and your bosses. At least you have friends, if you consider them friends, and hopefully you do. Not many people can say they have a good group of friends.
Do your job well. Work as unto the Lord. Love others well. Be excellent in all things, and you will be blessed. And always be grateful for your job. :)
God bless!
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