30 Days of Gratitude - Day 4 - Work

After a long week of work, I am thankful for my job and career that the Lord has blessed me and my family with. I am thankful for Fridays, knowing that days with my family and times of rest and creativity outlet follow in the form of a Saturday and Sunday.

Thankful for parents who taught and modeled a strong work ethic in that even when they didn’t feel like it, even if they had sniffles, even if they were tired, even if there was something else better to do, even if…even if….they always went to work. Thanks dad and mom for modeling responsibility and dedication by faithfully working day in and day out.
I am thankful for the benefits and health insurance that my job affords us.

I am especially thankful that our new agency head has curtailed our travels or at least mine. I have gone from approximately 25 weeks of travel out of a year to 8 weeks this year! Guess what? One can get a whole lot more done when they are actually in their office. That excites me. I am sure my airline and hotel points are suffering, but my family and I love it.

Most people I know don’t have a clue what I do, so I will attempt to give a short breakdown. I am a CDR, which is an O-5, active duty U.S. Public Health Service Officer and I work for Indian Health Service (IHS). This is what confuses people, my daily uniform (not the BDUs below) look like a Navy uniform. In fact, our working kahki, summer whites and service dress blue uniform are exactly the same except the insignia and yes, we hold the same rank. The USPHS insignia is an anchor and a medical caduceus. We are active duty, we are deployable and we receive the same benefits as our military counterparts. We are all commissioned and we have no enlisted. Our mission is to protect, promote and advance the health and safety of our nation. As you can imagine that is a big job for only about 6,500 officers. If you want to know more you can visit the USPHS Commissioned Corps webpage.

OK RDF-4 at Camp Bullis, San Antonio, TX

I am currently serving as the Assistant Director for the National Community Health Representative (CHR) Program. I do a variety of tasks, but at the moment I am writing policy and curriculum, planning a national training and conference, preparing to teach a class and give a keynote at a conference, reviewing data, responding to congressional inquiries, assisting programs when requested in program management and doing reports. Lots of reports. After all I work for the federal government and they require documentation on the documentation.

I remember my mom coming home from her civilian federal job and talking about “all that red tape”. I, being crafty and creative (at least until the Government smashed it out of me) thought , “red tape!?” I want some of that red tape! Oooo the things I could do with it, our school colors, go Del City Eagles! What a disappointment it was when as an adult that I learned that red tape isn’t really red and it isn’t fun at all!

My grandma working as an Alcohol Substance Abuse Counselor

I am a third generation I/T/U (Indian Health Service/Tribal/Urban) employee. My grandmother was the first Native American women in the big old state of Texas to become a certified alcohol and drug counselor and worked at the Dallas Inter Tribal Urban Clinic. My mother worked for IHS in a variety of different departments as an Administrative Assistant and knew everything about anything with the government and IHS. Everything she told me about both has held true to this day.

I know that some people think that federal government jobs are easy jobs for slackers; but I can testify that those that I work with, officers and civilians, all work hard. It is nothing to work 10 to 12 hours each day with no extra compensation. We work to make a difference. I do my best to honor the Lord in my work by honoring His Word. I have this scripture hanging in my office which serves a reminder for me which is needed often, especially when you work for the federal government. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" Colossians 3:23