Have you ever believed you worked hard for an opportunity and then not even really be considered for the position? Well this was one of the lessons that the Lord had to teach me in my early career (many times over I am afraid to say). However, during these times that we must stay in God’s Word and look at these times as growth and not disappointments for we can not see the future God is preparing for us.

Yes, my second store assignment was a great store. The store manager before me was promoted to a much larger store. The store had a strong staff that took good care of the customers and keep store conditions good. However, because of the high sale volume for the given square footage of the store the evening conditions of the store were not always great for the late evening shoppers. Sales were still strong however I believed we could make them even stronger. I started working every evening from 3:00 to 7:00 and stayed on the sale floors with two employees to improve our store condition during the evening traffic flow. It was amazing how after a few months our evening sales greatly improved.

After two years we had the store sales as well as profits hit all time highs. Our sales and profit per square footage were the best in the division. This led to the Central Office to make the decision to build a new store in the area. This one would be twice the size of our store and would be a Combo store which include a Pharmacy and a non-food department as well as a sit in deli. This was the store of my dreams, like the one I had been in a few years earlier as an assistant manager. However, the Central Office considered that the sale growth came from the population growth in the community and not our actions at the store level. My dream store went to someone else to manage.

A word of advice to young believers, never let disappointments trap you into giving up or believing that God has forgotten about you. There will be times of disappointments in your careers, and when these events happen it was probably become a greater disappointments each time they happen.  This was the greatest disappointment I had faced in my life up to this time.  I lost most of my key personnel to the new store and had to rebuild a new staff. My store was expected to see at least a forty percent drop in sales to the new store which also meant a loss in profits. But we stayed positive. God has a way of making believers stronger when they learn to wait on Him, instead of making thing happening on their own strength. God was planning a brighter future for me.