Day 1 The journey begins sooner than I thought

I planned to make a career change after my last daughter graduated from high school. I planned to leave on my timetable. Unexpectantly my employer terminated me and I found my self suddenly looking for work a year sooner than I anticipated.

Before I could even think about looking for new work I had to first constructively deal with the shock and the onslaught of thoughts and feelings that rose up in me. I went through a wide range of raw emotion.
I replayed and analyzed events and conversations I had with key people at work over the past six months to figure out why this termination happened and why I didn't see it coming.

I wrestled with myself and with God about how I would respond to the news that I was being let go. Fortunately I had been studying and teaching biblical Peacemaker principles for the past four months. God gave me the strength and the wisdom to see and take responsibility for my words and actions that contributed to my termination.

After much thought, prayer and wise counsel I went back to key leaders and co-workers with a mutually respected third party observer. My goal was to get closure for myself and for those involved in this decision. I was able to model what biblical conflict resolution looks like. The result was that all of us learned how to better relate to others and how to deal with conflict rather than avoid it until it is too late.

I was still suddenly out of work with no immediate prospect of a new job but I at least constructively dealt with my thoughts and feelings and made peace with those at my former workplace. This freed me up to look ahead and not focus on the past.