Friday, May 16, 2008

This is NOT Mickey-Ds

I work with folks who have a drive-thru mentality and they are driving me CRAZY!

I have a 42” plotter on which I print most of the posters posted around our building. I create the poster, click the print button, adjust to the desired size, then WAIT while the poster scrolls from my computer to the networked plotter sitting across the room. It sometimes takes 10-12 minutes for the scrolling to complete and the printer to actually begin to print. I have one particular professor who has a drive-thru mentality. He will stand in front of the plotter, doing a little “hurry-up” dance and watch the seconds count down on the screen. I reminded him the other day that we aren’t working at McDonald’s and this is not a drive-thru. He needed to learn to be patient.

Patience is so hard. Sometime back I saw on tv a study about marshmallows, children and delayed gratification. The children were given two marshmallows on the table in front of them. The researcher told them that he was leaving the room and if they didn’t eat their marshmallows while the researcher was gone, they would get two more marshmallows when he returned. Some of the children waited but several just couldn’t restrain themselves. They preferred instant gratification over the promise of the extra marshmallows. Researchers have found that children who can delay gratification by saving marshmallows until later, turn out to be happier and better adjusted later in life. The study says we “feel better when we are in control of our desires and, particularly, our behaviors.

In a devotion today, I read the following:

1. What do you want to have?
2. Can you wait?

Chances are, if you can answer yes to the second question, you will be
sure to find plenty of contentment and peace.

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

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