I remember when I was in the 6th or 7th grade, getting a quiz, and the teacher saying something to the affect of "read the instructions before you start. You have 5 minutes to complete it."
But it was a full page, and the instructions were long, and so we all jumped right into the questions. Problem was - if we had read the instructions, we'd have seen about halfway through the statement "ignore everything you've read, put down your pencil, and sit quietly until the teacher collects the papers. Do not write on the papers." The rest of the instructions were things like "draw here and write this and circle that and underline there"...
We let panic set in. We let the EASIEST of tasks become so hard that almost all of us fail the quiz. (yes, I was one of them that failed).
Same thing is happening right now. I'm in the majority (if not all) of the people who when it comes to the Charge Conference paperwork for the last however many years, would LOVE to see less of it.
Well, God has heard the prayers, and now there are only a few forms, and those forms aren't all so bad.
And I sat in a meeting with my District Superintendent as she explained them, and she could see my face turn different shapes and colors, and she even commented on it, until I finally asked "there's not so much to do this year? And you gave us examples to follow?"
Wow! So simple.
So I went to the people... "Here are your forms - so let's get to work, They're easier, simpler, quick, fun, less work. Just fill it out and don't worry about neatness - it all gets inputted into the computer. Yippee!!!
Now that I have sat here in my office all day and "filled in the slots", (the people did the work, I just simply accessed the forms and completed them online), I found out that the word "easy" stuck in my head a little too much.
I forgot to ask for this, and for that. And in the process, I failed to mention something else to some people.
UGH!
So now I sit, doing the catchup work, and making the apologies to the people for bothering them with the "I 'thought' we were done, but here's where I messed up..."
"...forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us...."
But I'm still going to go out into the hills somewhere and scream for a few minutes. It helps. =)
