You have to obey and follow.  Being a type-A businesswoman, sometimes that is very hard for me to do.  I hem and haw and many times outright just refuse to obey.  After all, i know what's best for me (what does God know?)  In a deep pit is where I usually end up.  After a period of "doing it my way" I was up against a wall, and shared with a client who has also become my dear friend, Donna.  She listened to my ramblings, then told me this story (it's her story, so sorry Donna, if I don't paraphrase it exactly the way it was told to me).

Donna is a waitress, and an excellent one! One day driving into work, she was musing on her lot in life, getting a bit discouraged that at age 50+ she felt she had not accomplished perhaps as much as she thought.  She was still a waitress, living with her fiancee, and collecting stray animals whenever she could.  She did not feel that she was successful, nor accomplishing anything of any importance.  She said a little prayer to God to help her see what her purpose was in life, to help ease her unease at her lack of accomplishment...after all what major impact does a waitress have in anyone's life.  She realized that her thoughts were focused on the things she had NOT done in her life; serving others as a waitress hardly seemed to count for anything.  So she changed her prayer to add, "thank you God for blessing me as a waitress and thank you for giving me a job in this economy!  Help me to see you in everyone I meet today."

She got into work, and immediately got very busy, serving her clientele.  Her first table had an older woman, quietly sitting by herself.  Donna felt sadness at seeing someone eating alone and set about trying to make the lady comfortable with her service.  She solicitiously asked if she wanted extra water, if the food was to her liking, and if she wanted the daily paper to read.  When the meal was over, Donna brought the bill and asked the woman if she could do anything that would help make her stay in the Valley more pleasant.  The woman replied that Donna was very kind and she appreciated her question.

Donna collected the bill and the credit card off the table and started to walk away to the register; she noticed that the tip was for $100.  Alarmed that the lady had made an error writing the tip, she turned around to walk back to the table. She was almost there when the lady said to her," It's not a mistake; you earned it dear!"  Donna was flabbergasted...how could this be? The lady's bill was only $23- and she was giving her $100- as a tip? The look on her face must have been funny because the woman stated, "Don't look so shocked - you are by far the best waitress that I've had in a long while...I hope you stay doing what you do, because you are very good."

Donna said to herself, "Thank you God for answering my prayer."