Unexpected Praise
Today was another typical day...full of meetings and the normal routine. One interesting thing that did happen involved Michael and I at work. You see, I am the resident techie around Word of Peace. I seem to know enough, or am interested enough to get involved in almost everything that has to do with electronics around the church. So, when something breaks that puts me into a spot of fixing it. The projectors in the sanctuary are no exception.
Over the past weeks we have noticed a lack-luster performance from one of the projectors and felt as though it was time to replace the bulb. Now this is no easy task. Ordering the bulb, no problem. Putting it in and taking the other out....problem. Not having enough money to call someone to do it for us....bigger problem. So Michael and I get out the ladder and I go up first. As a side note, the last time I had anything to do with a projector and putting it in place I had a harness and was tied into the beam 30 feet in the air. This time I forgot to bring it. This made my confidence level go way down and my stress to go through the roof. As a matter of clarification you can't just unscrew the lightbulb from a projector, you have to bring it down from where it is mounted and take the old out and put in the new. So not wanting to drop the projector nor fall off the ladder was first and foremost in my mind. Needless to say, I am still here and the bulb was replaced without incident. WHEW.
Later that evening I had choir practice. We are currently working on a Bach piece that is huge and is a lot of work. We have a while to work on it still but have a long way to go. We are at the point where we should know the notes and should start refining the nuances of the piece but I was worried that we were no where close to that point and we might get yelled at. What came from the evening was my surprise for the day. Rather than getting reprimanded for not being where we should be, our director was actually pleased with our progress, really pleased. This was a shock because none of us felt like we were improving at a good enough rate. This was encouraging and a relief to hear.
I love when this type of praise comes. You have beat yourself up for not doing well or are not confident of your performance when someone comes up and tells you what a wonderful job you have done. This is a hard thing to hear sometimes because of the expectations we put on ourselves most of the time. But we try to be humble and write it off, but it does feel good inside to have a complement like that said to you. It makes we wonder if I compliment people enough when they are least expecting it. I guess I could compliment people like crazy and hope I hit one of those unexpected times.
Blessings,
Dain
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