Labor Day has arrived again. It’s a day when we capture those last few moments of summer, when we grill hot dogs and hamburgers with our friends. But it’s also an official holiday, a time when we celebrate our jobs and the prosperity and strength of our country.
And it’s also a great reminder of some things we need to think about:
1) Thank God for employment.
This would be an awesome opportunity to thank God for our jobs. Maybe it’s not the best career in the world. Maybe we’ve been passed over for advancement at our company or we feel stuck, but in an era where many folks don’t have a paycheck, we sometimes need to step back and take stock of how blessed we truly are. One doesn’t have to travel far to experience abject poverty—one of the best reminders that even when we don’t have as much as we want, we often have so much more than other people.
2) Ask: Am I doing my best?
This would be a good chance to consider whether or not we’re doing our best work for our employers. Sometimes the fault at not getting ahead lies with us because we’ve slacked off and aren’t giving it our full effort.
3) Ask: Am I treating everyone right?
Labor Day is also a time to think about how we treat our co-workers. Are we kind and considerate or do we let impatience or an “it’s all about me” attitude get in the way?
4) Appreciate your boss.
And what about our bosses? When’s the last time we said, “Hey, I just want you to know how much I appreciate working for you. I’m grateful for my job and I want to do my best for you.”
5) Refocus on goals.
The final thing is the most important. We need to think about what we’re working for each day. Is it wealth? Prestige? To provide for our families? Are we spending too much time building our careers and not enough time with our loved ones?
You see, it’s easy for things to get out of whack in our lives. Often that happens without us realizing it. By putting God first, our families second, and other things after that, it keeps things in balance.
Let’s determine that we won’t look back at our lives years from now and realize that we missed the moments with our families. Those are irreplaceable days. We truly have just 18 summers with our kids, and we can’t go back and rewind yesterday to make up for lost hours and days.
So today as our focus is on labor—our jobs—let’s vow that we’ll look back someday with sweet memories instead of regrets.
