"Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.
Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you
will overflow with thankfulness."
I am just going to come out and say that there is not enough of a
spirit of thankfulness when we are at work. Something not good happens
when we put the key in the door or swipe the card key and cross the
threshold into our workplaces. Sure, we tell people thank you throughout
the day and we finish our emails with "thanks", but do we really,
really have a spirit of thankfulness when it comes to our work and the
people who we work with and around? When we are truly thankful for
something we cherish it, we protect it, and we do whatever we have to do
to keep that object, experience or person firmly in our lives. If we
were to have everyone go around the room in a business meeting and do
like we do in church and point out the things we were thankful for, it
would be an interesting exercise to see what people highlight and even
more interesting to see what they don't mention. When we do this at
church, like I did this past weekend with the kids in my Sunday school
class, the words come from the heart; family, friends, a house, food on
the table, loved ones who care and pray for us, our church, the ability
to freely worship, etc. And in this day and age, from adults you hear a
lot more people sincerely thankful to have a job. But, if we come out
from under the steeple and do the same exercise in the board room, I
suspect the answers would be much different and way more superficial
because the spirit of thankfulness is not alive and well in the
workplace.
Yes, there is a thankfulness for having a job in the first
place, but even that is transferable and temporary. The spirit of
thankfulness is getting down under the surface and really appreciating
and loving something or someone for what they do and how they support
us, and in return us caring so much that we would do nearly anything to
keep them as part of our lives. This is a week where we should be going
about the work of becoming thankful to others around us. Where that
starts is with returning to the One who we can all be thankful and
asking Him to instill that spirit within us. We read in Colossians 2:7;
"Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.
Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you
will overflow with thankfulness." If we want to be known and seen as
someone who is thankful we have to position our lives and ourselves to
Him first. Someone at your workplace today needs to know that they are
appreciated and that you are thankful for them. Can you seek them out,
find them today and reach out to them with a spirit of thankfulness and
really tell them how thankful you are for them? What you get back in
return may be a whole lot more good than you ever expected.
Reference: Colossians 2:7 (New Living Testament)
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