Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: This principle – do your best – is so simple yet I miss it all the time. It goes back to Cub Scouts “do your best” and Boy Scouts “do a good turn daily,” but it’s also biblical: whatever you do, do it as to the Lord and not as unto men.
This principle, if you use it here and there and everywhere, it’s so simple. It’s hard to imagine missing it. But yet, I miss it all the time. I fall short of this principle over and over again in situations here and there.
This book I read talked about don’t take anything personally and don’t make assumptions. So the next one is today’s principle, which I got first of all in Cub Scouts, and it was “do your best.” And in Boy Scouts, “do a good turn daily.” Not quite the same thing, but pretty close. And the principle is be your best.
Sometimes I am my best, and sometimes I’m not. I remember back in school, I wouldn’t say gifted and talented, but I did alright in school. I didn’t have to work very hard. I didn’t do my best. I got A’s and B’s, and I got by on a few things. I could have done my best and got all A’s. And this is a biblical principle too. Whatever you do, do it as to the Lord and not as unto men.
So the challenge is some things aren’t that important to us, and it brings in a choice when we think about this principle of do your best. Is that something you should even be doing? Should you be stepping forward in doing that? What got you into that situation where you’re doing it?
Another area is looking at it with our enemies. Do your best with your enemies. Do your best with those that aren’t your friends, those that aren’t related. And if you’re in an area where you’re thinking about slacking off, thinking about not doing your best, think about how did you get there, why are you there, and where should you really be right now? Because that might be the Holy Spirit speaking to you saying “Hey, you’re not doing your best here.” Explore that, examine that, dig in and figure out where’s the gap.
Sometimes for me, it’s just knuckling down with the Spirit and putting out my best for it, just through sheer flesh and body. The flesh is weak, so sometimes I don’t get it right. I don’t get it there. But when I do, it just amazes people.
Little things like shoveling the driveway, shoveling the walk, and getting to the very edges on our home is one of the things we teach our kids in doing our best and following through.
Looking at one of the clients I worked with years ago in software, they were in a big competitions business, promotions business, and one of their competitors that was ten times the revenues of them was dropping the business, just getting out of it and laying off lots of people. They’d been in the business for many years. So as a consultant advising them and guiding them, I did the best. I talked to them. I said “You can get their two lead developers that have been in this industry for fifteen years for less than the price you’re paying me to consult you right now.”
It may not have been the best advice I’ve ever given, but at the time, I felt it was best. That if I was running that company, that’s what I would have to do. I was scared and the manager said “No, we can’t do that. We need you. We love what you’re doing.” When he went and talked to the owner overnight, the owner said “Well, what do you think Brian will think if we follow his advice?” And the manager said “I think Brian will be just fine because that was his advice that he gave us. Even though I told him we wouldn’t, he would be OK.”
They decided to do that. And it worked out for them. It worked out for me. I rolled into another better consulting position. I got to help more people. I got to spread my kindness, my Christian – we show up as Christians even when we’re not preaching or evangelizing. So I got to spread that to a new place, a new opportunity by doing my best and rolling myself off of a consulting project onto a new one.
So do your best, and you be blessed!
