In the school setting, when someone visits your space of teaching and learning, they should immediately know the subject you are charged with instructing. For example, a literature teacher's classroom may have Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Dunbar quotes lining the walls. While in a science room, depending upon the discipline there might be a periodic table, a skeleton, a rock collection, microscopes, or a snake aquarium. The point here being that it is easy to surmise from the outside evidence the seeds of knowledge the teacher is sowing in that classroom.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." ~ Galatians 5:22-23
The same can be said of the spirit in which we are cloaked daily as we work. Each of us possesses a different vocational personality. Some perform well on their own, while others excel under a team based model. More often than not, we find ourselves positioned in circumstances with personalities very different from ours. As a boss, you may be an overbearing micro manager who would rather delegate for fear of taking responsibility or you may be working alongside negative absent minded individuals with far less experience than you.
If this is the work environment in which you currently find yourself, we might pause here to consider the purpose inside these sticky circumstances and the seed we are producing. If we are open, we see endless opportunity for pruning, for growth, and for sharpening of self.
Each day in our work we are called to examine the fruit we bear. None of us is perfect mind you, but when our staff and co workers think of us, consider their witness and the impressions they might share if asked.
"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~ Plato
Work toward learning to "be" present in your breath. And remember, your fruit is showing.
As a personality, how do you approach challenges in the work place?
Which fruit of the spirit is most evident in you at work?
What areas in need of sharpening are being revealed to you through your interactions at work?
