day 421: Accolades

I've had the opportunity to attend live awards shows and of course like most Americans, have seen more than my share on television. They are all the same with the nominated people all nervously awaiting their award announcement. And then only one wins and he/she will take the stage and either be really humble and gracious in their acceptance speech or leave the stage with everyone thinking that they were really full of themselves. It's a tried and true formula for the ages. While we don't usually have formal awards programs at work, although some companies do, in some ways every day is an awards show in the office. Staff meetings are filled with jockeying for attention, presentations are made without consideration of others who worked hard to make the presentation come together, deals are closed with one sales person getting the accolades while many worked on the account. There is no changing this aspect of work, but there is something that can be done in how we accept and receive the accolades when they come our way. In Proverbs we are told to never be the ones who boast of our own accord; "Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth - a stranger, not your own lips." This means that we are not to seek out the praise. We are to not self-promote and we are certainly not to brag, boast or create accolades towards ourselves. This is all to be left up to someone else, without us politicking or putting the words in someone elses mouth. This is many times a subtle but important point in how we are to be seen as examples of how Christ lived. He was the last one seeking out accolades and in fact went out of His way to ensure the attention went to His heavenly Father, not to Him. Today, can we try to be a little bit less about ourselves and more about how He modeled for us to live? When the unsolicited accolades come our way, it's great. But how we react, accept and ensure that the credit goes to those who deserve it, will say way more about who we are than the praise itself. May the accolades we all receive be the best of all, that others see us as ones who can receive but never act as though we deserve.

Reference: Proverbs 27:2 (New Living Testament)