Good Saturday morning!
Hope everyone has had a wonderful week. I have, except for the slight (understatement of the year) overexposure to the sun yesterday at a golf outing. I have been on vacation a little. Most people know I work two jobs. I have my absolute passion job for ERBA, I do it because I love it deep down to my toes and I feel it is what God put me on earth to do. I also work for TEAM ITS, which is my fun job. I do the marketing and digital media services and it reminds me so much of the days of scrapbooking and creating fun events for Robert and his friends growing up. I took this week off from ERBA -okay, I took Tuesday, Thursday (except for a trip to the Newton office) and Friday off from ERBA so I could get ready for yesterday's activities, the Effingham Chamber Golf Outing. We were sponsoring the first hole so I got to greet everyone and tell them about us before they started getting upset with their golf swing. It was a good time visiting with people. When I said I was the marketing manager, one guy says, "So you are responsible for the billboards I see all over town?" Well yes, I am, I love that I have created billboards. That was not even on my bucket list, But you can see how stuff like that falls into a similarity with scrapbooking, and for that matter, layout and design through being on the high school yearbook staff didn't hurt either.
What a lot of people don't know is I also co-own a small business that does marketing materials for small businesses. I don't advertise this a lot because it seems like I am always behind on this. When I get caught up, I will probably market it.
And THEN, I sell Tupperware AND Farmasi, again these are things that are in the works. The main reason I sell both of them is because I believe in them and I use them a lot but I plan to progress very shortly into having my facebook pages set up for both.
I am having the time of my life. I love everything about my life, I love the fact that I am part of the Jasper County Tourism Council, that I sit on the Advisory Board for both Eastern and Lakeland in the IT field and that I am very involved with my church.
And then people label me a workaholic and I cringe. I once read an article very unbecoming to those of us who don't like to sit still. It was from a Christian perspective and was basically putting a person considered a workaholic down. I couldn't remember the name of the article so I just googled Is Being a Workaholic a Sin. And what do I come up with? "The Most Respectable Sin in the Christian Community" and Workaholism is a sin that must be stomped on" Ugh.
BUT, I decided to read a couple of these articles and I realized, happily, I am NOT a workaholic! (This is when I change the title of today's blog, lol)
According to these articles a workaholic is someone who has over 4 of these traits:
1. You think of how you can free up more time to work.
2. You spend much more time working than initially intended.
3. You work in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness, and depression.
4. You have been told by others to cut down on work without listening to them.
5. You become stressed if you are prohibited from working.
6. You deprioritize hobbies, leisure activities, and exercise because of your work.
7. You work so much that it has negatively influenced your health.
So, I learned the difference. There is only ONE of these that pertains to me, TWO once in a while if I have a deadline at ERBA or TEAM ITS, but that is definitely not an all the time thing. The one I have is being told by others to cut down on work without listening to them.
As far as deprioritizing hobbies, some of my work IS hobbies, I still have time for my friends- spent all day with two of them last Saturday, meeting two for lunch today, and anybody who knows me knows they can find me at the gym at 5:30 most weekday mornings. I start every morning out with a devotional and prayer and spending time with God and I realized THAT is what powers me. HE is who made me this way and yes, that article I read a long time ago said there are no rewards from God for being busy, I have finally realized I don't believe that.
I have a friend who is constantly saying "Everything in moderation" and he is right. I realized this morning that I don't place so much value on work that I forget to thank the One who lets me have this life. I thank God EVERY morning for the things He lets me do.
So, I guess I will go back to the beginning and cringing at being called a workaholic and say, yes, I believe if someone lets work takeover every aspect of their life, including taking them away from God, their family and their friends, that is a workaholic, and yes, I will agree, that is a sin.
The Bible has a lot of good things to say about hard work though,
Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."
Proverbs 14:23 says, "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."
and of course,
Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"
Which tells me, God handed me what I see as this incredible, challenging, exciting life and I love Him even more for that.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago about getting rest, God didn't rest on the 7th day of creation because He needed to, He rested to show us we needed to. Which brings me to the fact that God works harder and longer than all of us, He is ALWAYS working.
In the one thing leads to another way, this reminded me of the song Waymaker. So, that is what I am leaving you with.
Have a great week!
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