Warning: Creating default object from empty value in /home/newhope/public_html/components/com_sh404sef/shInit.php on line 37
Remember, how faithful you are in the little things you have today will determine how much you are trusted with tomorrow. | New Hope for the Week
Welcome to New Hope

Remember, how faithful you are in the little things you have today will determine how much you are trusted with tomorrow.

Today I will:

  • treat the place I work as if it were my own business
  • be a good steward of the time I have promised to others
  • be frugal with the resources of others and treat them as I would my own

And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? Luke 16:12 (ESV)

Paper clips, pens, photocopies, Internet access, long-distance phone calls, time around the water cooler, and a myriad of other "small" things are often a temptation for small acts of theft from our employers. They may just be little things that our supervisors may not even seem to care about, but habits of unfaithfulness in little things too often grow into larger and larger violations of privilege until we have set down a pattern of unfaithfulness and slothfulness in all of our work habits. The Message Bible says it this way: "If you're honest in small things, you'll be honest in big things; If you're a crook in small things, you'll be a crook in big things. If you're not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store?" (Luke 16:10-12 MSG).

Employees often feel unappreciated in their work and somehow subconsciously justify these little acts as entitlements they have because they are not making the money they feel they should, are not being treated with the respect they feel they deserve, or have been passed up for some advancement, project, or opportunity they feel they have earned. But the fact of the matter is that even little acts of theft are still theft. The employee who swipes office pens or spends time browsing the Internet for personal reasons on company time is no better than the little kid who shoplifts candy from the local grocery store. We think we get away with it if we are not caught, but all we do is solidify a pattern of unfaithfulness and cutting corners to get ahead rather than solidifying the work habits that will be a blessing to our lives.