A J-BAR PRAYER
Father, we come before you now on bended knee, hoping to honor you with our integrity. Please make our judgement as sound as steel and be our hands upon the wheel. Give us strength and vigilance on our routes and help us to serve others, as You did, Lord, without any doubts. Remind us to be gentle, humble and kind, and help us when we stumble in body and mind. Please shelter our families whilst we are away and bring us safely back to them at the end of this day.
One of my least favorite things to do is to complete a task and find out later that I left it unfinished, or that I didn’t complete the task in the manner in which I was asked to and then I have to go back and re-do the same task again. In short, I detest re-doing something that I have already “put to bed” as it were and I am fairly confident that I am not alone in these feelings. In fact, I will go a step further and say that we all generally dislike having to go back to finish a job that we have begun previously, but not finished — I use the “we” as in “us” (J-Bar). How do we avoid these issues? We try to immerse ourselves in the “rules and regulations” of whatever job we are performing and then we try to throw ourselves into the task with every ounce of intelligence, passion and energy that we possess. We realize that we are imperfect and we try to learn from our mistakes and realize that others are not perfect either. We do our best to help each other so that the job gets done and we try to address issues as they arise, so that they are not repeated.
The Bible guides us all in these ideas:
2 Timothy 2:15 — Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (In this we can place our trust that if we are honest and try hard, all will be ok.)
Joshua 1:9 — Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (In this we can place our trust that if we give our all, it will be enough and that God will walk with us in our work.)
Titus 2:7 — Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity. (This is our hope – to treat others as we want to be treated.)
Colossians 3:23-24 — Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Jesus Christ. (In this we can place our faith – that God rewards us here as well as in Heaven for our diligence and dedication to being the best that we can be.)
Please list something that you feel can help you in your job and something that you feel hurts you in your job:
Help — ___________________________________________ , Hurts — ___________________________________________
What is one thing that you want moving forward from J-Bar?
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We are J-Bar — we are blessed beyond measure. We love — we are thankful beyond measure. We serve, and in so doing become the leaders that God wants us to be.
