Now, you know how it goes. You write or talk about something and sometimes, the principles you’ve spoken about are tested. This is one of those times when I was tested.

I won’t go into much detail about my daily job. However, I will say that it is a position with admin rights to a few databases. This means I receive requests to do things in those databases that others cannot. I also manage a team that has an established 3-business day turnaround time for their work. When I have too many requests and cannot get to them in a day, I will use the team’s turnaround time.

Well, one day, I received an email. It was sent to me after my business hours the previous day. The request wasn’t super quick to complete. So, I moved it to my queue. I aimed to complete it that day if possible.

Before noon the day I saw the request, the person sent me an e-mail asking if the request was done.

Seriously?!?

My thoughts were, “Don’t rush me. I’m not sitting here just waiting on your request. I have other things to do that are keeping me quite busy. In fact, your request is pushing me over the top. I already have too much to do.”

My real response was, “I have reviewed your request, and it will be completed within 3-business days.”

I finished it in less than the allotted time, but I felt stung. This wasn’t the first interaction where I felt rushed. It seemed like people just think I’m waiting for their request before I have something to do.

I got another request from the same person a week or so later. I chuckled.

My first inclination was to let it sit until the last day of the turnaround time and then work on it.

As Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV) says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

BUT… I didn’t stop reading at verse 9.

Jeremiah 17:10 (KJV) tells us the answer, “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

As soon as I thought of treating someone poorly, I was convicted. My heart was revealed to me. In that moment, I could have ignored that conviction. I could have ignored the request, or I could have chosen to respond differently.

I thought about it for a bit. I decided that this was an opportunity for me. I wanted to make sure I did not allow deceit or wickedness to settle in my heart. Until I can receive a request from this person and not be aggravated, I will add their request to my queue. It will be a priority to finish it the day I receive it.

The kicker is, in a situation like this, no one would even know if I mistreated this person. But, I would know. God would know.

This may seem like something so small, but I believe that the small opportunities we are given help us to grow. The direction of our growth is determined by the choices we make.

I don’t choose to listen to the conviction all the time. Lawd knows I be tryin’. 🙂

I’m thankful for the times that I do.

I’m thankful that I even recognize that these little ‘annoyances’ that sting are opportunities to guard my heart.

In guarding my heart, I keep it from the misconduct of mistreating others in ways that can’t even be seen.

In guarding my heart, I live a life of caring for others and not only caring for myself.

I live the Golden Rule.

It is not easy, but it is necessary.