“So whether
you eat or drink or whatever you do, do
it all for the glory of God.”
1
Corinthians 10:31
Many of you probably read last Monday’s
article and know that I won’t be writing for the Thought Box much, for this
next semester at least. Hopefully, I’ll
still be submitting articles every now and then, when I have the time, but
right now, I have a lot of school stuff on my plate, and I’m not sure I’d be
able to do any of those things (Thought Box, School, and other activities) as
well as I should with so much going on, and I couldn’t commit to writing
articles monthly. I want to do my
absolute best with all the
opportunities God has provided me – even school. And that brings me to the topic of this week’s
article.
I remember when my family first started
homeschooling – my mom, brother, sister, and I all used to sit around the
kitchen table together, working on school.
Being younger like we were, we fairly often complained about how hard
our school was and how much of it there was.
We would have much preferred to go outside and play. Well, obviously, that didn’t go over very
well with our teacher who instead made us a sign reading, “Have an Attitude of
Gratitude” and hung it on the wall. In
fact, we still have it hung on the wall, though it’s now in a different
room. Well, that helped us stop
complaining about it as much as we had been, but we still didn’t understand why we had to do all that tough school
work. Finally, mom came up with a way to
explain it. As kids, our job was to do
school and learn so that one day, we could have a real, “grown up” job. Now I don’t know about you, but as a kid,
that really motivated me. I had a
job! But why did it have to be so hard?,
I still complained. Mom directed me to 1
Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23.
“So whether you eat or
drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians
10:31
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your
heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23
Too often, we ignore these two
verses. In my own life, I’ve observed this error in at least two different ways. 1) I take my
opportunities for granted, and rather than go about them joyfully, I end up
complaining much of the time. 2) I take
advantage of the abundance of opportunities I am privileged to have and pile on
so many that I’m not able to do any
of them as well as I should. Neither of
those ways are the right way to treat the opportunities God has provided us
with, but in this article, I'll be focusing on the first.
“Every good and perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who
does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
Since God is the one who provided us with all the “gifts” of
opportunities, doesn’t it make perfect sense that we would praise Him for them
and do our greatest at them, as though we’re working for Him as opposed to our
teacher or boss? One problem: those of
us who are better off than some other people we might know – or don’t know —
often don’t recognize that those opportunities we have are just that!
Here in America, for instance, we’ve come
to view education as a right, and it’s something that everyone does.
Really, we’re just privileged to be able to go to school and learn, but
we come to view it as a burden. Just
imagine if you lived in Africa. Most
kids in the rural areas can’t afford to go to school, and those who can count
themselves extremely lucky and are thankful for every day they’re able to
attend and gain more knowledge. To those
adults reading this, I know this is more a reference to the kids, but there are
other areas you can probably relate to. Maybe
you complain about your job, or your house, or your car. Being as I’m still in highschool, I’m sure
you’ll understand if I’m not finding quite the right example. :) But
find that one thing that you might complain about, and think about if it were
suddenly taken away. It’s such a gift,
but too often, we don’t view it as such.
What would happen if we were to stop
complaining about things? If we were to
be joyful while we were going about our duties?
Don’t you think other people would notice? And if people notice that we’re doing our
jobs joyfully, even the not-so-pleasant ones, maybe they’ll ask us why. And we can tell them that it’s because we’re “working
as if for God and not man.”
“Always be prepared to give an
answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that
you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15
The Comma Queen
Image by Leaping Lizard
