My daughter, Megan, has applied for several internships this summer for some really neat companies around the nation. I’m really proud of the way she is willing to go to places and do things even though all of her friends won’t be with her. When I was her age, I’m not sure I would have had the guts to do what she’s done.
While she’s applied for these positions, she hasn’t done a lot of follow up. She says she doesn’t want to “bug” people. She figures they’ll call when they’re ready. When she called me from college today, I could have gotten on her and said, “so why haven’t you followed up?” Or, I could have said, “You’ll never get a summer job if you don’t do something.” While I might have been tempted to say something like that, I used a bit of self control. I could tell by her voice that she felt a bit of pressure. So instead, I put on my cheerleading cap and tried to pump her up. “Megan, you are so talented and have such an incredible resume,” I said. “You’ve also got some incredible opportunities with some really good companies,” I added. “You can do it!”
Then I put on my coaching cap. “In these kind of situations when I need to get an answer from someone, I pray and persevere. I pray that that I’ll find favor with them, and I persevere by following up with them once a week until I can get an answer.” I continued, “Megan, even though you might feel like you’re bothering someone by following up, it’s the best thing to do. They’ve got a lot of other things on their mind and following up with you might not be at the top of the list.” Then I prayed with her, and encouraged her to persevere by making a couple of follow up emails and phone calls right away.
Guess what, she did! And one emailed her back right away and the other actually picked up the phone when she called. A wonderful lesson learned—pray and persevere! Can’t wait to see where God takes her.
