Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Balcony or Basement Person
The CWM newsletter will be going out later this week. The article is on whether you are a Balcony person - lifting people up or a Basement person - putting people down. My question is at your work place is it a critical or encouraging environment? What about in your home? How do you show Christian character if others around you are critical?
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4 comments:
I am very blessed at my work place to have a pretty positive environment to work in. Employees are valued here, and the goal is to help our clients live happy and fullfilled lives and to keep staff who are good at what they do. We try to keep staff who are good at what they do and enjoy their jobs by offering incentives, opportunities for personal development and bonuses. Another positive for me at my job is the team work and flexibility. If someone calls in sick or needs help with something, everyone is always willing to pitch in. This week, I was scheduled to be on call, and my husband had some medical issues. My boss was very thoughtful and actually came to me and offered to take call for me. This meant time away from her family and possibly re-arranging her weekend, but she voluteered to do it just to take some stress off of me. You don't get that everywhere you work, so I feel blessed! It's easy to be positive with my employees when others around me are so positive.
However, at home it is different. My husband has a lot of health issues, and when he is sick or in pain, he gets very depressed. In order to motivate him, I go into the "tough love" mode, not letting him sit around and feel sorry for himself. This seems to work with him, but at times I find I don't shift gears quickly enough, and I can be a little too strict on my four year old. I have to pray about this a lot, and at times I have to stop myself before interacting with my daughter and conciously make myself shift into a more positive and nurturing "mommy mode". This is very difficult for me sometimes.
I will have to say that my workplace is not very encouraging. I do enjoy my job and also the people I work with but it is definitely not a Christian environment. There is, as I am sure in a lot of places, a lot of gossip, arrogance, speaking poorly about one another and passing judgment. I will admit that I have had my moments and have gotten sucked in. I try hard to stay clear of it all though and do my best to be an encouragement to others. It does not make me very popular though. A few of the women I work with have given me a hard time because I choose not to talk badly about others. In fact, today I was helping someone with some information they needed and as I walked out of their office they thanked me and I responded with a friendly, "your welcome." As I started to walk down the hall one of the women I work with yelled out, "phony!" It hurt me and I started to think about and evaluate my character and if that is how people perceive me.
I may not speak the name of Jesus much in my office but I pray that his light will shine through me nonetheless. I keep a bible in my desk drawer and turn to it often.
At home my husband is not a believer and so I try my best to live out my faith so my daughter and my husband will know the truth of our Lord. I have to say I have my (not so Christian moments) there too but I just keep turning to His word and hang on to faith and not lose hope.
Could I also request prayer? My mom has severe lung disease and she just told me that her prognosis is 2 years. I know that through our Lord Jesus Christ that all things are possible and that 2 years could mean 10. Thank you.
Thank you both for sharing. People are watching us. I prayed for you and your mother. I do know how hard that can be. Before my father died he was given 6 to 9 months to live and it ended up being over a year. The up side of that is he came to my son's first birthday party and that memory will be with me forever.
I work in a public school, and the amount of negativity that the staff shows sometimes overwhelms me. I try to maintain a positive attitude, but sometimes I find myself getting sucked in. Lately I've been choosing to just stay silent. Thank God I'm on summer break, and can rejuvenate. (This is my Sabbath.)
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