Lessons Learned From A Dishwasher Disaster

   This past weekend was a blur of craziness... but within the blur, there was one experience that stands out, because I learned something from it that I'll (hopefully) never forget.

  As you might remember, I work at a small upscale restaurant, but before I joined the ranks of the bussers and waitresses, I started off as a dishwasher. Now last week, I got called into work on Saturday night for dishwashing because the regular dishwasher couldn't do it. Not to be egotistical or anything, but I'm probably one of their fastest dishwashers...I can usually get everything done in record time. Actually, I think I'm better at it than waitressing, and usually I don't mind taking over shifts, but this time I was hesitant to agree because I had to get up early Sunday morning to sing at church. But to be a good employee, I grudgingly agreed.  
   
   After a long Friday night of working, and a Saturday afternoon of rehearsals, errands, and preparing for singing the next day, I was less than thrilled about going into work for 6 hours. I think as a result of neglecting my prayer time that morning, I was starting to feel the effects: agitation, worry, distrust. But I just said a hurried prayer and moved on.

   Well, if I had known what a heck of a night it was gonna be, I would have 1) taken more time to pray, and 2) probably felt like Jesus before His passion...intense dread.

   When I got there, I was informed that one of my bosses (and also the co-owner) had thrown her back out and couldn't work. She's usually the head waitress, so they had to call in another, somewhat inexperienced girl to step in for her. That was the first indication of a stressful night.

   Everything went smoothly for the first seating though, and around 8:00, we started preparing for the 8:30 seating as usual. I happened to notice that the glasses had started coming out of the 90-second high power dishwasher a bit foggy, so I decided I should probably drain and refill it. The process is a little complicated, but I managed to remember. Except for one small detail--taking out the circular plug from the plastic strainer compartment. I remembered a little late, but when I went to press the start button, nothing happened.

   The sous chef, Anna (who is also the head chef's daughter), explained to me what I had done wrong and told me to do it over again. I did. And still, there was nothing. While Anna prepared the meal, her dad tried to fix it. They assured me it wasn't my fault since it had happened before. Fifteen minutes later, we were in a panic. Chef couldn't get it working, the waitresses were behind, the first course was running late because there was only one person making it, and I was trying to keep on top of hand-washing the dishes. Chef looked up at me and said, “Molly, I hope you said your prayers because you might be hand-washing the rest of the night.” Okay, you're talking a fancy five-course meal, with lots of silverware, glasses, plates, plus pots and pans.

   
   I had a mini-heart attack and launched into a rapid string of silent prayers. I said every prayer I know, called upon nearly all the saints' intercession, asked my friend Jo (who was working with me) to pray too, and tried my very hardest to put my trust in God. I thought for sure He would be merciful enough to zap the dishwasher and make it work so I wouldn't have to go through that. I thought I was in a bad dream. Chef couldn't take any more time trying to fix it. But still, I kept saying my prayers, hoping for a miracle.
 
   I got nothing.

   I was on the brink of tears after an exhausting day, with the endless night looming ahead of me, and I was so upset at the Lord. How could He let me down? How could He not come through even when I apologized for neglecting Him and had prayed so hard? I thought I might just collapse from fatigue and stress, but miraculously, I didn't. It was the weirdest thing, but I suddenly felt a surge of strength and was able to get in my zone, working doubly hard. Everything around me seemed to be falling apart, but all I could do was hold up my end of keeping on top of dishes, and gosh darn it, I did my best. It says in the Bible about almsgiving, “Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.” Well, I took that literally. One hand was washing while another was drying.

   With a little help from my co-workers and some chocolate cake, I made it through. I stayed on top of everything under the pressure and didn't have a nervous breakdown. And here's something even crazier: I was done the same time I usually am even with the dishwasher! Everyone, myself included, was pretty shocked.

   I couldn't understand the whole night why the dishwasher never started up again after I had literally begged God to fix it. But as I finished up and headed home, something dawned on me. I remembered hearing a few times that while God might not answer even our most desperate prayer, He will give us the strength to get us through the hardship we're praying to get out of.

   And I realized that's exactly what happened. I thought He had ignored me and decided I needed to work myself to death that night. But no, He gave me super-human strength and energy to complete the job and not give up. When I look back on it, I now realize there's no way it was me who did it. It had to be Him...so really, He didn't let me down after all.  
   
   It completely changed how I look at prayers being answered in the way we want. It also proved to me that “God's power is made perfect in weakness,” as St. Paul says. Sometimes God responds right away and miracles do happen. But often we're left wondering if He even cares. I'm here to tell you...He does. Maybe if He doesn't answer in a miracle, we can instead pray for help to get through our trouble rather than out of it. That's often when He surprises us with His strength. 

   So all in all, what I took away from the night was: chocolate cake is an amazing energy booster, always make sure you drain a dishwasher properly, and God knows what He's doing.

Say What?

   Ever seen those little memes floating around Pinterest and other social media sites called “Daily Odd Compliments”? You know, like this one:

(from Pinterest.com)

 Yeah, those. So touching. Personally, I think most of them are pretty dumb, although a few have made me chuckle.

   Well, as I happened across some of them the other day, I recalled some of the weird (and often comical) compliments I’ve either gotten or heard about in my life, and thought I would make my own real-life “Odd Compliments” post. 

   I'm pretty sure the people giving them meant them to be sincere compliments...but most of them were the type that you don't know whether to reply with "Thanks" or "Sorry."

   Anyway, I thought I’d pass them on, just in case you need some fresh ideas for “flattering” someone. 

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An older lady we know recently asked how old I was, and I told her 17. She said "Oh honey, ya don't look it, trust me. I thought you were in 6th grade!"

After dancing with a man at a ballroom dance social, he asked me, "So are you a gymnast?" 

I replied, "No, but I'm a ballerina." 

 His response: "Oh, I was just wondering because you have extremely strong hands for such a tiny girl." Um, thanks?

My best friend also received a comment on her dancing at a ballroom social. Usually the gentleman will politely thank the lady after each dance. But after she had stumbled through a samba (which she didn't know very well) with this particular gentleman, he walked her back to her seat and just said, "Well, thanks for trying!"

A lady came up to me after I sang at church and asked, "Honey, are you taking voice lessons?" I replied yes, and she nodded and simply said, "Oh. Well keep 'em up!" 

When I was 9, our family went out to brunch with another family one Sunday, and naturally I got a kid menu to choose from. After 5 minutes of trying to decide what to get, my mom asked me to give back my menu. She handed it back to the waitress, smiled, and said loud and clear, "We're going to get an adult menu for her instead, because she has a hefty appetite." Thanks a ton, mom. 

My sister told me the story of when she was going out to eat with our grandparents, and she was wearing a dress with brown leather rider boots and a brown leather side purse--goin' for the cute/casual combo that's been the fad lately. They came to pick her up, and when she got in the car, my grandpa said to her, "You look like a 16th-century shepherd, with your boots and saddlebag!"

One night at work, while dishwashing, I got so buried in dishes that I knew I'd be there till morning if I didn't throw my whole back into it and work my tail off.  So I gritted my teeth and resolved to clean everything up in 20 minutes flat. I don't think I've worked so hard in my entire life. And just as I was finishing up, with sweat pouring down my face, my boss looked over at me with her jaw open, stared for a second, and finally stammered "OMG Molly, you're an animal!" I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But I said thanks anyway. 

Probably one of the worst compliments you ever want to get (and I've heard before), is that something "looks homemade". Don't get me wrong, homemade stuff is great and all, but if someone says it LOOKS like you made it, chances are it needs some help.

I also play flute at church, but apparently not many people pay too much attention to it. Recently I saw a man from church at an event, and he went on for about 5 minutes to my sister about how talented a musician she is, and then he turned to me and said,"Oh, and what's that thing you blow into?" 

One of my favorites is a remark that was given to my grandpa. In his twenties, he sang in a small all-male choir, and after one of their performances, one of his friends came up to him and said, "Nice job, Bruce...you really stood out!" 

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Hope you enjoyed these...but if not, you can just tell me, "Good wasn't the word for it." And I'll take that the way I want.