I'm a full-time mummy

I read a blog post (I'm sorry but I couldn't find the post anymore no matter how hard I googled for it) a couple of years ago about this lady who prayed for her very very sick mother. Of how sad and heartbreaking for her to see her mother lying on the bed in pain. Of how she prays and prays for her mother to get well and yes, her mother did get well, but only for a while as not long after that, her mother fell more sick and in more pain before finally succumbing to her sickness. The post goes on with how the lady regretted and felt sad with her mother's passing. She realised that she should have prayed for God's will instead of hers. She thought of how God had planned for the way things are to be, only to be interrupted by her own prayers for her mother to get well, and eventually causing more sufferings to her mother.

When I first read this post, I asked myself how could God do this? And to her poor mother?  But after some serious thoughts on this, I realised something. You may disagree with what I'm going to say here.

I mean, think of it this way, if you know your beloved pet is going to die and you have no way to cure or heal it, what would you do?

Will you pray for it to have a swift and painless death? Or you would rather it just hangs on and you keep hoping for miracle and refusing to accept the fact that it's going to leave you?

Everytime something bad happens, the following came into my mind...

But we, as human, we think we have the power and the rights for things to be done our way.

We pray to God to spare the life of our loved ones, to heal them, to make them well again, to take the pain away, so on and so forth and we forgot about the part that everything is under the control of Him.

We think that God will listen and will answer our prayers. Of course God will answer our prayers! Read: Luke 11:10 (NIV)

But think again! Is it what God wanted? Is what YOU wanted, agreeable by Him? Read: Psalm 119:36 (NIV)

At this point now, you may say "Easy for you to say full-time mummy! You're not the one with the sick / dying / terribly in pain loved ones / friends / etc here!"

I will just like to tell you that it is not easy for me to say this but I did. Twice.

When my dad lies in the hospital bed drifting in and out of consciousness while the doctors are still struggling to find out what's wrong with him, I prayed for God's will.

When the nurses rushed in to resuscitate my dad as I stood outside his bed with my last memory of seeing the flat line on the heart rate monitor, I prayed for God's will.

When my mum lies in the hospital bed in so much pain that all I could hear was her troubled and difficult breathing through the oxygen mask, I prayed for God's will.

When the specialists stood next to my mum whispering to each other that her kidneys are still failing and that there's nothing much they can do, I prayed for God's will.

Despite how badly I needed to see my dad and my mum getting well and back on their feet again and for everything to return to the way it was, I prayed for God's will.

Despite how badly I wanted God to heal them and hoping that everything is going to be fine and dandy again, I prayed for God's will.

Read: Revelation 4:11 (NIV)

I pray that if it is their time to go, oh God please do it as swiftly and as painlessly as He possibly could.

I pray that if it is not their time yet, please God, let them get well again.

I pray that no matter what is the outcome, I trust that He knows what is right and what is best for ALL of us.

I trust and surrender to His will and will accept it no matter what is going to happen.

I told my dad and my mum I love them, I told them Jesus loves them and I told them to have faith and not to worry about us.

I am not asking for you guys to pray for God to end the lives of your loved ones just because you see them in pain and suffering. I am asking you guys to pray for His will. Forget about ours. You can pray for healing and everything, but remember to put God's will at the top most priority in your prayers. He knows what's best.

And please don't think that I want God to end my parent's lives. Just think, does it do anybody good if my parents end up suffering more (and longer) just because of my selfish need for them to get well and continue living and for everything to be a-oh-kay again instead of God's plan for them to move ahead and go up there and be with Him?

All I know is I am glad that my parents have got the chance to accept Him before they passed away.

I am glad that I'm able to tell them I love them and not to worry about me and the rest of us anymore.

I am glad and comforted that they are no longer in pain and suffering anymore.

I am glad that they are up there with Him.

So, please remember, pray for God's will to be done, not ours...

To: The Management Office of One Utama Shopping Centre,

I would like to express my dissatisfaction over the customer service we received while we attempted to rent the toddler’s ride on car (kiddie ride) at your mall recently.

We were told by one of your customer service staff to wait for 4 more months in order to be able to use the ride-on car and were then reminded about the requirements in order to rent the ride-on car. Did I mentioned that your staff said it sarcastically to us? Oh nevermind, we as parents generally have higher tolerance level for things like this...

Yes, it was then that I saw your notice board stating that the kiddie ride is fit for 2-5 years old and height below 90cm. FYI, my child is 20 months old and his height is 89cm.(Btw, a quick search on Google will get you to a mummy blogger who proudly mentioned that she lied when asked whether her child is 2 years old as "not that they even bother to check".)

We then mentioned that we have no problems using the similar ride-on car at Ikano shopping mall, to which a reply of “That is Ikano, this is One Utama” with an arrogant look shot back at us. Oh wow... first came the sarcastic comment, now we get an attitude as well?!!

Is that how your customer service staff is trained to communicate with your mall customers? I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to politely inform us about the reasons and such of your ride-on cars requirements.

We then asked for the baby stroller instead, and were told there’s none available. So what do you expect your mall customers to do? Wait until there’s one available? Or perhaps your customer service staff should have taken the initiatives to offer other alternatives to us? We get NONE. We were just left standing there figuring out by ourselves.

As we were about to walk off, one family returned a baby stroller and we rented that unit. After all, there’s not much choice we can take anyway… I mean, we already get the 'complimentary' sarcasm plus an attitude, what else can any parents (not to mention, PAYING CUSTOMERS) ask for?

You really have to look into how your customer service staff communicates to your mall customers. After all, if we have been treated politely, we would’ve enjoyed our shopping experience and spend more.

Really unhappy customer,

I just want to share a quote and lesson to you folks out there who are still in the working world on what to do when it's time to move on to another working place...

Last time, whenever I made a decision to move to another workplace, I always remind myself with the quote above. Even to my ex-colleagues or students (I used to teach a batch of students on programming in my first IT job), I told them never ever to burn bridges should they decide to leave and I always leave them this quote above.

You never know when you need help from your ex-company / colleagues and so on. I've always made it a point to maintain relationships with my previous companies. Granted, I may not have a lot of experiences in moving around companies, throughout my 9 years of working in IT line, I've only changed jobs 3 times.

Days ago, I received a Letter of Demand from one of my previous companies stating that I need to settle an X amount of money in lieu of my short notice of resigning from the company. I got the shock of my life as:

#1: I tendered the resignation in February 2008 and it has been over 2 years, and only now I get this letter?!

#2: I've already paid up the amount in lieu for the short notice before I left.

#3: I even have a photocopy of the cheque I issued to the company together with the HR manager's signature acknowledging that they have received my payment.

#4: As my BFF pointed out to me via MSN (I chatted with her on this issue), the company will not let me go had I not pay up the outstanding amount and they definitely will not release my last salary as well.

#5: I'm a full-time mummy now.. a SAHM.. how the heck am I going to pay that money? (Believe me,  at one point, I even thought of starting Ben on kneading and stamping out cookies dough and entertaining thoughts of selling cookies to pay off the amount)

So anyway, back to this case, I tried calling the HR staff to clarify the situation (and to point out that they indeed are making mistake) but I could only get to their voice mail. Frustrated, I asked for help in Facebook. I had a large number of ex-colleagues who are on Facebook as well, and true enough, within minutes, one of the section heads replied asking me what's wrong. I shared with her what happened, she even tried to contact the HR staff for me and soon, I managed to contact the HR staff and in the end, clarified the whole situation.

The case has been closed, the HR staff sent me an email (as black and white) to acknowledge that they have indeed received my money years ago and requested for me to ignore the demand letter. I could make a big issue out of it (after all the emotional stress and trauma they put me through, of having to dig through my boxes of paperworks and documents to find back the photocopy of my payment slip and all with an active and curious toddler around) but again, this quote came to mind.

So, dear friends who are still in the working world, when you are in a situation where you are / about to / have decided to make a switch to another place, do consider this quote. You never know, one day a helping hand will come back to guide you when you need it the most!