Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Formatting a letter.....with God in mind.

This is how a letter is formatted:

Name (of the person you have hurt)
Address (they should have one)
City Province Postal Code

Dear Wilf: (Name of person I hurt)

Re: A Formal Apology for Glaring at You and Raising My Voice - Somewhat

(Opening paragraph)
It was a crazy day at work today, don't you agree. I somehow managed to get your letter typed and formatted without too many problems. Thank you for allowing me to get right in there and do those mundane things for you, like letters.

(The body of the letter)
I was typing several other letters as well today for one of your co-workers, plus a very large and horrific Contract for Mr. T. This will now be known as "The Contract from Down Under" (and I do not mean the Continent of Australia!).

In it's former life, it was a popular little document and had it's lovely origins in "Word Perfect". Now, however, due to decisions which I am not privy to, we are encouraged by force to use "MSWord". These two programs are very different and each have their own little sweetnesses about them. I was attempting to line up all the "Whereas-es" and "Wherefore-s" and put in all of the bullets as in: I. A. 1. a) i) and so on. Did these little babies do as they were supposed to???? NO! NO! NO! They did not. This little item had me sending out very unsavory messages to those about me like: "Oh, pig face!!!" or "I hate Word!!" or "I'm quitting typing. I'm throwing this document away and no one will be the wiser!!" There were a few other little quotes but no one heard me....I could barely hear them myself!

Yes, it got to that point of frustration.

In you walk, dear Wilf, letter in hand, saying something like: "Aren't there supposed to be only 4 lines between the "Sincerely" and the "Signature"????? You were questioning me - the ever-so-proud "letter queen"! After having faced this ugly piece of %(*$)&(^%@%@$% contract for the past several hours, you figured you knew how many lines there should be for your signature in the letter I had typed for you.

(My confession)
I looked up at you and said ever-so-definitively "6 HARD RETURNS - THAT IS HOW MANY LINES YOU LEAVE - 5 LINES WITH YOUR SIGNATURE ON THE 6TH LINE!!!"

(My repentance)
I thought to myself, "Is the contract from down under causing you undue stress? Is it unnerving you? Should you take a break before you begin to spit fire and whack people over their heads?" Yes, to all of those thoughts. I apologized to you - and you certainly deserved one.

(Forgiveness)
You see, there is no excuse at all for how I spoke to you. Please forgive me. You deserve much better. I will try to speak to you and my co-workers with much more grace and humility, beginning tomorrow.

Thank you for the lesson you taught me today, Wilf. I must never get angered over something so simple as "2 extra lines for a signature". It just won't make much difference when all is said and done.

You may contact me at the above address, should you have further comments or questions regarding letters and the formatting of same.

Sincerely,





Sharon (please forgive me, Wilf) Kent
Project Administrator

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Just thought I'd throw that in there as a reminder to myself. I sorely needed it.

1 comment:

Linea said...

I didn't know you had taken the plunge, but it is about time. I love what you post on the church blog. Your voice in blogville is fresh and good.

Thanks for sending me a notice!