Mamma Said

Mamma Said

In another life, I was a retail salesman and manager. .  I truly enjoyed my work and was successful at it.  I worked for J.C. Penny’s, my first years in Kansas, also Dryers Shoe store there.  When Deanna and I moved back to Idaho I became a sales man for Bon Marche in Boise. 

As I worked there, I moved up the ranks to a manager and we moved to Tri-Cities Washington to open the Tri-Cities Mall as the divisional manager for the Shoe Division there. I was sent to close the Bon’s Shoe store in down town Richland.   We were then to be over the Naturalizer, Florshiem, Red Cross, and Hushpuppies store, as well as Manager of the Bon Marche shoe store.  It was a big job.    I was a success as far as many were concerned. I was the youngest divisional manager in all of Allied Department stores. 

 But I Learned that store politics and back hand stuff were are work. I wanted no part of what I considered bad business practices.   It simply was not going to happen, so I transferred to run a small department in Pendleton Oregon.   

While in Oregon, I learned that Pastor Dick Kiem had passed at Bowmont Church of the Brethren.  I applied for the position as Pastor, and we were called to Serve.  Deanna and I moved back to Bowmont and I began selling Shoes in Boise again. 

We enjoyed ministry a great deal at Bowmont.  Larry Dahle was opening a new Store in Boise and asked me to come manage his shoe store.  I accepted.  Dahle’s was a great company and Mr. Dahle and I became good friends. 

When the Store Manager at Dahle’s resigned, I was asked to take the position.   It was a good move and we soon found ourselves busy with church and shoes.   Our first inventory was not good.  There were shortages in my shoe department.  Big shortages.  I was devastated.  How could this be.  We will never know…. Only Mr. Dahle came to see me.  He was sure that I had not misappropriated anything, and I had not.  I was thankful for his support.  But He added “David, I will have to have you step down as Store Manager… There will be no change in your pay… “ 

 Wow, what a blow.  First the Bon, now Dahle’s.  Success, was difficult.  Got a taste and then it was gone.

What came as a second blow he was putting a bookkeeper, that I had hired, in charge as the Boss.    While she was a great book keeper I did not see her as a store manager.  Well I still had a job and the money was pretty good.  Ego is a tough thing to swallow sometimes.  This new manager was definitely “the Boss”.  I did not care for this retired Marine’s managing style.   The “Dragon Lady”, and I had many long-heated discussions. 

Her redeeming quality was she was truly a good Christian. We had a love hate relationship for a time, but eventually we became good friends.    

The following year, our store sold a million dollars’ worth of shoes and merchandise. I won a trip for two weeks to Hawaii for Deanna and myself.  Mr. Dahle made me salesman for the year for the company.  

Success? I don’t know ….

I had received a note from my mom with a different thought  about success.  I want to give you what she said…. (I carry it on the  cover of my Bible.) 

Mamma Said:

“God is not interested in our image to the world.  He only wants that our lives reveal His Son to the world.  The question is , Can He be seen in me?    Success is not being at the top, but a relationship with Jesus Christ.  The way up is often down.  God is not interested in possessions, or position.  There is a great difference between livelihood and life work.  The only Jesus some people will ever see is the one they see in you.  Success is out of our control….. but Faithfulness is completely in our control.  “   

 

King Solomon, in  the book of Ecclesiastes, summed up life as a lot of Vanity.   And in the end he said that,  “all that mattered was to please God and Keep his commandments.”