Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - Proverbs for Business and Management
Look at these verses from Proverbs 6:
Go to the ant, you sluggard: consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provision in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
In the margin of my Bible by this verse I have written "self-motivated." The ant is a self-motivated creature. Without anyone standing over all those ants and telling them what to do, they perform their jobs diligently and are prepared for what lies ahead.
Self-motivation is a key factor in our business world today. Very few people have it. Too many people are just trying to get by with as little as possible. They don't look beyond their noses to see what else could be done, they take no initiative, are not willing to go any extra miles.
A Christian in the workplace should be like the ant: self-motivated, willing to dig in and get the work done without prompting, without constant supervision. Does your manager trust you? Can she or he be assured that you will diligently do your job whether anyone's watching or not? Certainly a Christian should produce that kind of reputation.
You know, our witness in the world can never be effective if our lives aren't different. If we have the "It's not my job" attitude that is prevalent today, if we drag our feet and do only what we're told to do, if we gripe and complain about doing anything above and beyond our job description, how will our coworkers and management know that Christ makes a difference in our lives? They won't, and our verbal witness, if there is one, will fall on deaf ears.
Christians have a power far beyond self to help motivate us. We have God's Holy Spirit dwelling within us to give us the strength we need to be self-motivated. And we should have an outstanding testimony on our jobs that we do our work, we do it whether anyone's watching or not, we do it to the best of our ability, and we're willing to go the extra mile.
Go to the ant and consider its ways. We can learn wisdom and self-motivation from those tiny ants.
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