I’m not working outside the home these days, but I did that for over 50 years. Only in recent years, the past ten, perhaps, did I realize the importance of my faith and my job performance. Employment must be a two-way street. I often felt critical of a company’s policies, or my pay scale, or favoritism on the job.
Somewhere about ten years ago, I realize that it wasn’t just about what my employer owed me, it was also about what I owed the employer. It doesn’t matter whether someone else gets treated better. If my boss is treating me the way I was promised when I was hired, I am doing well. If I am getting the pay scale I was promised, I am doing well. If they promised increases along the way and I received them, that is good. I have no right to expect more than what was promised.
In exchange, I owe the boss what I promised when I was hired. I do not owe griping. I owe focus and performance. I should not take home note pads and pens, or use the office equipment for personal copies or emails.
I realized that it is spoken of in the Bible, in many different places. It isn’t about just me. It’s about what God himself expects of me. Once I managed to get that straight, I was on the right track and resentments faded. I’m still human. I still felt things, but I was better able to put them into perspective and better able to shrug them off. If I couldn’t shrug off a resentment all the way, at least it was nowhere near as strong as the first forty years of my working life.
Dear God, help me to render to Caesar, to my boss, all that you expect me to, all that I have promised in exchange for my pay.
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