How to be blessed at work (3)

“In honour preferring one another.” Romans 12:10

Here is another important key to being blessed on the job: thoughtfulness. That’s true whether you’re the company president or the night-shift janitor. The nameplate on your office door may say that you deserve respect, but you have to earn it every day through your work ethic and your attitude. In the Old Testament, most people earned their living by farming and raising cattle, so Solomon offered this advice: “Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds” (Proverbs 27:23 NAS). Good leaders make it their business to know the needs, strengths, weaknesses, potential, and motivational levels of those who work with them. As a result, employee sick time is reduced, morale improved, and quality and production soar. Believe it or not, a pay increase isn’t always the best motivator. Sometimes your thoughtfulness, understanding, and interest in an employee is a more powerful motivator. Putting people down or taking them for granted just guarantees resentment. When you truly care about people, you try to bring out the best in them. And if you’re an employee, God promises, “Whoever protects their master will be honored” (v. 18 NIV). If you keep criticizing those above you, those around you will begin to distrust you. Why? Because they know that at some point you will do the same to them! As long as you resent your position as a follower, you will never become qualified to be a leader. The Bible says you’re supposed to speak well of those in authority over you (see Titus 3:1-2). And if you can’t, say nothing and look for another job. That’s how to be blessed on the job.

Bible in a year: Isaiah 37-38 and Ephesians 6