LESSONS LEARNED AS A GRINCH
Picture this:
It’s early Novemberish, and my boss informs me that due to scheduling conflicts, the upcoming week is the only time available for us to transform our shop into a Christmas Wonderland. One would think I would be thrilled to begin the Christmas festivities early, but one would be wrong. Instead of processing the future event like ya know, an adult would, I decided to live in denial and pretend that my Christmas Nightmare was never coming.
Alright, I can already feel the judgment brewing in your minds. So, before we continue on with this riveting tale, I will explain why decorating for Christmas is a form of torture for me:
Clean Freak: My mom did not give me the nickname of “Monica” for nothing, y’all! Although I do enjoy the appearance of decorations, and will admit they do bring smiles to many faces, to me they just seem like a really big hassle. Decorations get in the way of my cleaning, I’m super clumsy so I am always knocking them down, and I guess I just have more of a minimalistic approach to decorating. I definitely see my future containing a “Christmas Plant” rather than a “Christmas Tree”.
Laziness: It takes a whole heck of a lot of work to decorate for Christmas! I will confess that I enjoy the idea of decorations, but the actual process of it leaves me feeling stressed, irritated, and overwhelmed. Joy, cheerfulness, and Christmas spirit are emotions rarely felt when decorating looms over my head. I’d much rather sit in my pajamas and watch a Christmas movie than have to get up and complete the marathon of decorating.
Mediocre at best: Finally, I have no idea how to decorate. The trees I trim always seem to have bald spots, I drop about very fourth ornament I pick up, and I have no idea how to arrange the decorations. I seriously just have no skill in this department! Once, after decorating a tree, I stood back and asked my coworkers to admire what I felt had been a job well accomplished. My sweet boss quickly replied, “Don’t worry, we will fix it later!”
Ok, now that you know the background of why decorating is not my favorite activity, we can all have kind thoughts, and resume our weekly Negative (N)ellie Trainwreck 😉.
After having lived in the blissful state of denial for a few days, I could no longer evade my foe. Monday had arrived, and it had brought its friend, Christmas. As I attempted to complete the list of tasks I had been assigned, which included rearranging the shop, removing the Halloween decorations, and bringing in the Christmas decorations, I quickly became overwhelmed and cranky. Finally, I had almost reached the end of my list. All I had left to do was bring in two Christmas trees from the storage unit and begin decorating them. Easy peasy, right? No, more like hardy difficult. I managed to wrangle two trees down from the loft, folded the ladder back up, rearranged the storage unit to its former glory, and carried the trees inside, only to discover that one of the trees I had retrieved did not need to be decorated. I repeated the above-mentioned steps at least three times, and each time I opened the box and saw a “no-decorating tree” my irritation bubbled hotter and hotter. Finally, to the horror of myself and those around me, the true Grinch Ellie appeared in all her ugliness.
Although my boss had been so kind to forgive my outburst, I felt awful about the way I had acted. It’s not like I was being asked to do anything difficult! So there had been a few hiccups in the process, that didn’t make it right for me to go all “I hate Christmas” on everyone. After giving myself a stern talking too, I decided the best way to make up for my actions was to just try and be better the next day. Tuesday, I woke up with a determination to not let my hatred of decorating get to me, and I will admit, I did a pretty good job. That is, until Wednesday, when Grinch Ellie came back in full force.
Wednesday night, I could not shake the horrible feelings I had created with yet another outburst. Why was I letting decorating get to me so much?! Recognizing that I had not been a great representative of Christ over the past few days, I wracked my brain, and prayed for inspiration on how to make up for my Scrooge-like actions. My go-to answer came to me in an instant, food! In addition to the gift of a hopefully delicious treat, I was also going to make sure that I was the epitome of Christmas spirit in that salon. I was going to be serving, positive, a hard worker, and do what was asked of me with a smile on my face. I wanted my actions to make others think of Christ, not a cranky person who hates Christmas.
So, Thursday morning, I prayed and prayed and prayed for the strength to get through the day with kindness, grace, and Christlike love, and that is exactly what happened. I was able to quickly do the tasks that were asked of me, and attempted to replace my feelings of irritation with feelings of happiness at the opportunity to serve. Guess what? At the end of the day I felt happy, a little proud, and much more peaceful than the night previous. The next morning, in an attempt to complete my please-forgive-me process, I raced to the store, mixed up one of my batches of chocolate-covered cereal goodness, and headed to work to begin my final day of decorating. Although I had lived in fear of this day since we had finished decorating last year, I decided to go into this one with the most positive of attitudes I could muster. (I bet you guys know what happened next, you smarties, you!)
To my utter surprise and awe, the dreaded day of decorating had actually been kind of fun! When I looked for places I could be of use, tried to do my job without complaint, and chose to act as Christ would have, the day flew by! When I begged my coworkers for forgiveness, being the amazing people they are, they quickly agreed, and relieved me of my stress and remorse. I went home that day feeling happy and light, two emotions I did not expect from a day filled with ornaments and glitter.
So, what lessons did I learn from my week as a Grinch?
Prayers are Answered
The Lord truly does hear our cries for help, and will aid us in ways we would never expect. I begged for the strength to be a good example of Christ that fateful week, and He did not disappoint. I know that without His help, I would have been a cranky mess all day Friday, and would have just created more reasons to be sorry. Instead, He heard my cry and used my efforts to make me better. What a blessing, what a character shift, and what a testimony builder.
People are Awesome
I was soooooo embarrassed of the way I acted that week, and yet my coworkers were so quick to forgive. They helped me to recognize that nobody is perfect, and we all make mistakes. Instead of dwelling on them, all we need to do if put forth our best efforts to make up for them, and try to be a little better. It was so scary to ask for forgiveness two times in one week, but my coworkers showed me the true love of Christ as they forgave me, quickly moved on from my actions, and allowed me to start from scratch.
Mistakes Can Turn into Miracles
After the many mistakes I had made that long week, I felt like such a failure, and didn’t know how I was going to ever face my coworkers again. The Savior, however, did not view my mistakes as failures, but instead as opportunities to grow. As I turned to Him, He turned my mistakes into miracles. This experience helped to instill in me qualities that allow me to be happier in trials, more Christlike in serving opportunities, more diligent in my work, and more positive overall. I can clearly see a change in the person I was before the feared week of decorating, and I am so grateful for it. He helped me to see that mistakes can easily be turned into victories. Instead of looking for how we messed up, we need only look for how we can improve similar situations in the future. That is what this life is all about! Trust me, when you do manage to overcome the hurdle of your mishap, and turn it on it’s head, it is a feeling of accomplishment that cannot be described.
So, do I looooooovveee decorating now? No, definitely not. However, I hate it just a little bit less. Without Christmas decorating, and my week as a Grinch, I would not have had a much-needed opportunity to grow. So, I guess you could say decorating and I are now on civil terms. Hopefully next year it won’t give me such a kick in the pants, because I will remember my lessons I learned as a Grinch.