day 712: Seriously (repost)

"And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching."

The adage is, "let's not take ourselves too seriously". For the most part that is correct as the minute we start to take ourselves too seriously we can come to find out that no one takes us nearly as seriously as we do and that is a real let down. I have known many an executive who must get up in the morning and look in the mirror and say to themselves that no one is more important than the face looking back at them. Why do I think this, because they bring that attitude to work and it is really annoying to everyone else. So, if we are taking ourselves too seriously, we should drop the act and recognize that we all put our pants on the same way each day. That said, there are areas where we should be seriously serious. I was with a friend recently who was telling me about someone he hired whose most recent employment had been terminated because he passed, what he thought and perceived at the time as innocent, an email joke along to members of his team. Three days later he was fired and removed from a very good job that he needed. On reflection, and in the interview with my friend he said he, "just had not taken it seriously enough".

Part of being serious when we need to be is in the understanding that we are setting and throwing off an example each and every day, hour, and minute. If we don't listen to that voice down inside of ourselves that is telling us, "this is a time to be serious" and stop playing games, we can get ourselves in serious trouble and let a lot of people down. As believers we get great teaching from the Word, our prayer time and where we worship. But we need to take that teaching and carry it into our jobs as much as anywhere else in our lives. We read clearly of this in Titus, "And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching." Today, let us evaluate and reevaluate where in our lives we should rightly be a little more serious in who we are.

Reference: Titus 2:7 (New Living Testament)