Success Guaranteed

Daily Gratitude Year 7-Day 155: Today, I am grateful for success guarantees. 

I was raised by two parents who strived to pour their best into whatever task they were doing. Dad and Mama Ina Mae were not half-way people. This quote from Og Mandino captures an attitude and a lifestyle that reflects the values I was taught...  and hopefully caught... from childhood.

"The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be." -Og Mandino

I am grateful I was taught volunteer jobs were equal to paid ones. I am grateful for the example of "Say what you'll do and do what you say."  I am grateful that paid jobs meant you did the job to the best of your ability...  and gave a little extra, too, because someone was paying you. 

Small, "insignificant" jobs... done well... have as much value as big ones because they often create ripples of love, kindness, hope and compassion. At the end of our lives, what will be the markers of a life well lived? We will be remembered for what we gave... not what we earned or collected. 

In Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, Solomon speaks with God infused wisdom. It was a gift God granted him and it led to great success and wealth. Still, the great king comes to a place where all that prestige, power, success and accumulated stuff is meaningless. Look at this passage:

"Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” -Ecclesiastes 1:2 

In Ecclesiastes 3, he comes to a place of understanding that much of life is full of "busy work" (The Message). Wise Solomon begins to reconcile that it is in our work and relationships where we begin to see God more clearly and understand the value of each day. 

"Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. " -Ecclesiastes 3:11

In our work and relationship, we learn much about God. We can't see across time and space, but he can. His big picture is His, but our little life stories are a part of His big story. He wants our stories woven into His tapestry with all of our struggles and imperfections. He longs for us to give him our hearts and to face each day giving hims our all. 

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him."-Romans 12:1

Success is guaranteed when we live to offer our lives as worship. No job is insignificant.No task is beneath us. No challenge is beyond us when He goes with us.  

Today, I am grateful for success guarantees.