Welcome, friend! I hope you are having a terrific week so far!
Today, I am featuring a guest post by Aleigha Israel, who is a novel writer and a blogger at The Pen of the Writer. Her thought-provoking post is an encouragement to all of us to remember who we should be ultimately be serving in everything we do.
“It’s good enough.”
How many times do we, as Christians, utter that phrase? We tackle a task, only to say towards the end, “That’s good enough.”
But good enough for what? Good enough for whom?
This morning I made my bed as usual. (If there’s one thing I used to have OCD about, it was my bed.) I had high goals when making my bed. The comforter hangs over the bed only so much. The pillows must be fluffed (and there are six of them). You get the picture.
I’ve instilled this OCD in my 8-year-old sister. That’s probably part of the reason why I don’t have it anymore. In fact, she’s the one who brought to my attention this morning that the comforter wasn’t hanging perfectly straight over the bedside. And because I didn’t feel like fixing it, what was my response? You guessed it. “It’s good enough.”
This got me thinking. Good enough for what? And good enough for whom?
Who do we make our beds for? Who do we cook our meals for? Who do we do the laundry for? The answer’s not me or us. It’s not our husbands or our families.
The answer is Christ.
We work and play for Christ.
We do everything for Christ.
We don’t (or shouldn’t) work to receive man’s praise. We should do everything with only one figure in mind: Christ.
Those aren’t my words. Take a look at this verse from Galatians:
For am I now seeking the favor of man, or of God? Or am I striving to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10 ESV)
Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians that if we’re serving man rather than God, we aren’t servants of Christ. I don’t know about you, but I would never want to fall under that category!
How do we make certain that we aren’t serving man rather than God? And if we are, how do we stop? Do we even know the difference?
Well, for starters, serving the Lord means we aren’t serving ourselves. And serving the Lord means we’re not primarily serving others.
Don’t get me wrong, serving others is definitely not a sin. In fact, we’re commanded to serve others. When we serve others, we’re serving God!
But think of it this way:
Imagine yourself mopping a floor and doing the best job you’ve ever done.
Why are you doing this? Because your boss is going to look at it later.
You stand back and admire your work. The floor looks better than it ever has, if you do say so yourself.
Then your supervisor comes to see it. Maybe it’s a parent, a sibling, or a boss. You’ve been waiting for this moment with great expectation.
What are you waiting for?
Praise. Adoration. Encouragement.
After receiving it, you go happily on your way, rejoicing in another task well done.
But instead, let’s say your boss comes but doesn’t offer you any praise or encouragement. He glances at your work, gives a half nod of approval, and leaves.
How does that make you feel?
Discouraged. Upset. Unappreciated.
Why would his reaction have such an effect on you?
Because you were working for him, and when you didn’t get the reaction you’d expected, you became discouraged.
You see, if you would’ve mopped the floor for Christ, doing your best and not expecting praise or anything else in return, you would’ve had no reason to grow discouraged because of your overseer’s reaction.
It’s easy to crave the praise of others, but we ultimately should be desiring Christ’s praise. And we can do a “good enough” job in our daily work, but diligent and wholehearted work pleases Him.
Let’s not do things “good enough” for Christ. Let’s do things to the best of our ability.
He deserves our very best.
Aleigha C. Israel, writer of inspirational fiction and poetry, is an author of six books and enjoys sharing God’s love through the powerful art of storytelling. Her novels are distributed by Grace and Truth Books and have been enjoyed by ages nine to ninety-three! With two amazing parents and five of the greatest siblings, there’s always another adventure just waiting around the corner! To learn more about Aleigha and to sign up for her weekly blog post, visit: www.thepenofthewriter.weebly.com.
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