Criticism a good thing?

Thank God for answered prayers!! This week has been a complete turnaround from last week!! I don't think much has changed except the way I'm approaching my work and coworkers. I'm relying on God more to keep me humble when dealing with the very opinionated and critical people I am working with. Criticism has always been very difficult for me to take, but when I realize that it's not so much about me and glorifying myself, but rather glorifying God, criticism is really not so bad. It's actually been good! I'll explain . . .

The past couple of days I've been working with a master carpenter named Terry, helping him to build a landing with steps outside of his door (all of the houses are on raised foundations down here because of the tendency for flooding during hurricanes). Terry is a very gifted and experienced finish carpenter but has all kinds of skills including: being a civil engineer (oh yeah!), a great motorcycle rider, and a professional harmonica player!! Sadly, Hurricane Ike not only severely damaged Terry's home but also took one of his legs (due to gangrene). Unfortunately, the poor man's wife just passed away about a week ago as well. Please keep him in your prayers. So a little more about Terry: He's the biggest perfectionist you'll ever meet! Where most people talk in feet and inches, this guy talks in 32th's of an inch!! So here I am, with a just a little bit of carpentry experience trying to build something for a perfectionist carpenter with 30-plus years of experience. It was humbling to say the least. I've probably had what I did criticized more the past 2 days working with him than in my whole life!

So why is this good you ask? Well, I've also probably learned more about carpentry the past two days working with him than I have in my whole life. The whole way he goes about his work amazes me! The attention to detail, the way he plans out the project, etc. was completely different than the way I was used to doing things. So once I shelved my pride and fear of criticism, I discovered that criticism maybe wasn't such a bad thing . . . if nothing else it made me tougher-skinned. There will always be criticism out there, as much as one may try to avoid it. I think I learned that if you don't take it quite so personally, you can learn a lot from it!! Sometimes its good to have a reminder that I'm not perfect and don't have it all figured out. How boring would life be if that was true?

Here's the progression. I will post more pictures when it is completely finished, which should be by tomorrow. Note that those aren't the actual steps in the picture on the right, just temporary ones. This is one well-built little landing area. I'm proud to say that I helped with it! :-)