Focus On Your Unique Role

Work we are passionate about can be extraordinarily time-consuming.

For many of us, we are not just going to work, we are building the business. We feel impassioned about what we do and guilty when that work is not progressing or up to a standard of excellence.

Here’s the rub, as we read the word of God and see the creation, it is clear that God loves progress. He loves excellence. However, when progress and excellence begin to compete with your Unique Roles, roles that only you can do, that is when our lives fall out of balance.

When work becomes busy, many subscribe to the prayer

“Lord, take care of things at home while I do your work and build the business.”

This prayer seems right, it seems religious, and it seems spiritual. However, I have talked to enough executives, spouses, and kids who hate the business because it seemed like their spouse or parent was married to it. Most of us know that something must give. We are not sure what to do.

In Christ, none of us are called to submit to our careers. We are not called to submit to the desire to create a name for ourselves. We are not called to submit to the drive to make a lot of money or build a bigger organization. Instead, our heavenly Father calls us to submit ourselves to a person.”

For those of us who are in Christ, we turn to the very familiar scripture of:

Ephesians 5:21, 25

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

For those of us with families, we have no choice except to place our family ahead of our job. Placing them above the people and problems at work.

Change our prayer from:

“Lord, take care of things at home while I fulfill the vision at work and build the business.”

To

“Lord, take care of things at work while I take care of things at home.”

Although each family situation is different; most of us have only two Unique Roles in our entire life.

1) The first is husband/wife to our spouse.

2) The second is parent to our kids.

Everything else that we do, someone else can do. And guess what? In time, someone else will do!

Someone else will one day serve at our position at work. Others will do the job that we do.

Don’t trade what is unique to you for something someone else will do.

Also,

Don’t blame the job for your decisions.

I’ve worked for some demanding bosses. Not one with long-term success expected team members to regularly work more than 40 to 45-hours per week. There are seasons that we have to put in 60+ hour week at work. By far, the difference for many is that we need to work for those 40 to 45-hours and not just show up. 3-hour projects should take 3-hours and not two days.

If you decide to trade a Unique Role to you for something someone else will do, chances are you will regret it.

I pray that we will trust God with our Unique Roles. And trust Him with the vision He has put in our hearts for the business.

Do you believe that God will bless your decision to prioritize those roles that are unique to you?

If yes, prioritize your life according to our Unique Role.

Let us not trade something unique for something someone else will eventually do?