EncourageYou!

OK, I admit, I like doing taxes. Some people like to do crossword puzzles, some people like to do those Sudoku puzzles, some people like extreme sports, I like taxes. It's like a puzzle, in a way. The basic formula for a tax return is this:

What you really earned

minus

What you earned but don't have to pay taxes on

minus

deductions everybody gets to take

minus

other deductions and exemptions

equals what you pay taxes on.

At the end of the year, the difference between what you owe and what you've already paid is what your refund is or what you still owe.

So what does this have to do with anything? I suppose that we all have different strengths and interests, and even if your particular strenghts and interests make you a little weird, surely you can help and encourage somebody along the way.

This week our home's pet population decreased by two as our parakeets found a new home. We've downsized our homeforce from 5 people, 1 cat, 7 fish, and 2 parakeets to 5 people, 1 cat, and 1 fish. Just goes to show that our parents are right, we like pets, but we lose interest in them after a while.

Sadly, people often lose interest in other people the same way. Friendships, marriages, and whole families dissolve because the interest is lost. Too bad.

Fortunately, God does not lose interest in us, even though we often lose interest in Him. It's easy to do, even to the creator of the Universe, because He is unseen (although His creation is not).

I need to work on building and maintaining my relationships. Not easy for a task oriented person like me.

This week I finished a Fantasy Camp for Certified Public Accountants. CPA Fantasy Camp is when a very smart but average guy like me gets to interview at a top 10 CPA firm. To better understand what I'm trying to explain, here's a little compare/contrast:

Think of sports fantasy camps. You get to go to sort of like a vacation, wear an authentic team uniform, and hang out with cool atheletes who are much better than you. In CPA Fantasy Camp, I got to wear a real accountant's uniform, including the white shirt and red tie, go to a real accounting firm office (very nice) and hang out with other CPAs who are much smarter than I. We talked about accounting stuff, went to a power lunch, and for a while I got to dream about really working for them. In total, phone interviews, office interviews, getting suits and ties out of the unused corners of my closet, and research/practice in between covered almost the entire month of August.

In real life, I have an accounting degree from Manchester College (Indiana), a CPA license, and membership in Mensa. Currently I am working with my wife's parents to grow our family business. In addition to our retail bakery www.crawfordsbakery.com, we make make private label wholesale bakery products. We work hard, including Saturdays, and usually split our time between administrative leadership and hard production. We work for a living.

The hang up is that I have a lot of skills, intelligence, and ambition, but not enough specific experience they are looking for at this moment. So, I fell just a little bit short in my quest, for now, but now that Camp is over, I can return to helping our family reach our mutual goal of prospering our bakery. I can also go back to preparing to teach Sunday School, a new year kicks off September 17th. It was like a dream, and now that I'm called to prosper right where I am, I can get back to business.