Give It Your All
“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 Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24
I could make a list of things that I don’t like doing and it would be a pretty long one. And sometimes I tend to complain about the things I don’t like. When my mom asks me to wash the dishes, I grumble a little and sometimes try to get out of it. When I have to do homework for a class I don’t really like I try to put it off as much as I can. Usually I end up doing it at the last minute, which makes me sloppy.
I don’t like taking tests, I don’t like cleaning my room, I don’t like getting my hair cut, I don’t like, I don’t like, I don’t like. In Colossians, we’re told that we should do everything heartily. Some of the definitions of heartily include: exuberantly, vigorously, thoroughly, and completely. That means we should have a good attitude when we do things and that we should do them to the best of our ability.
That can be really hard, I know. Usually we’re excited to do things and do them well when they’re things that we like to do. When it comes to things we don’t like to do, our reason for doing them well and having a good attitude needs to come from outside of the task itself. When it comes to things we don’t like to do, we need to do them because of what God has done for us. We’ve all been given responsibility over certain things like our grades or our chores. When we do them well, especially the things we don’t like to do, we glorify God.
If we do things with a good attitude, we end up doing them better which can help us in the long run. Sometimes, doing things joyfully can even help us do them faster. We’re not dragging our feet about getting something done because we don’t like it so it doesn’t take as long.
When we have a good attitude about things, we can even find that the things we didn’t like to do aren’t so bad. Taking care of our responsibilities and doing them well is a way of thanking God. I’m blessed to be able to go to a good school and get a good education. Because of that, I should thank God by doing the work I need to do for school and doing it well.
I’m blessed to have running water and food and plates to eat off of. I should be thanking God for all of that as I wash the dishes. Doing everything heartily for the Lord helps you create a better atmosphere around yourself. You probably don’t like to be around someone who is complaining and slacking off all the time, so don’t be that person. And if you find it hard to be motivated to do something or have a good attitude about it, ask God to help you and he will.