iWork4Him PowerThought
Prepping for work each day, chug your coffee and take a short swig of workplace inspiration with the iWork4Him PowerThoughts. Hosts Jim & Martha Brangenberg give you a 1-minute daily challenge to live out your faith at work. Each episode is designed to kick off your day with an idea you can put into practice as soon as you get to work. The iWork4Him PowerThoughts are focused on helping you to recognize that your workplace IS your mission field. Catch new episodes every Weekday.
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Put Time Back on the Calendar
<p>There have been times in the 37 years of our marriage when one or both of us needed to work a significant amount of extra time to meet a deadline to keep our jobs. The issue comes when that short term becomes all the time. Jim and I started an insurance agency from scratch. We knew that for the first three years, Jim would need to work three nights a week and 4 1/2 days a week to grow the agency's sustainability. We made a point to ensure that we always had a date night and never worked weekends. We agreed together that the inve...
Provision or Neglect?
<p>I can't tell you how many times Martha and I have heard this one phrase in a marriage mentoring session. "I work hard so my family can have the things I didn't have when I was a kid." That's all fine and dandy, but usually, we are given that excuse after the spouse feels neglected. That usually spurns a conversation about not feeling appreciated for how hard one spouse works. It creates an argument about all of the stuff they own, which causes them to work so hard to pay for the stuff they own. It's all a vicious circle. You d...
When Loving Work Goes Too Far
<p>I love to work. I love to jump out of bed, get ready for work, and go to work. I spend all day working and come home, and then after dinner, I like to work some more. Working brings energy to me, and working brings satisfaction. I love to work because I love to see things get accomplished. I love checking things off my list. There's a danger in loving work. It's so easy to get caught up in my work that I don't realize that I'm hurting those around me by working so much. There was a time in my life when my job r...
It's Not "My" Money
<p>I work hard, I make money, I pay bills, and I buy stuff. I work hard for my money. I want to bless my family with the things that they need. I have a right to spend the money I make on the things I want, right? If you are married, then there's some caution that needs to be expressed here. The money you make because of your job should go into a common money pot for your family. All of the money that goes in there goes to paying for all the family's bills. There is no such thing as his money...
Steward It All Well
<p>We go to work so we have money. We need money to pay our bills and to buy things. Where I spend my money matters to God, especially if I know that those companies are supporting things that are actually anti-God. We work with Inspire Investing to ensure our investments are biblically responsible. We chose a mobile carrier, Patriot Mobile, because they are pro-God, pro-family, and pro-country. We select our retailers, ensuring our dollars are not being spent to support the things we fight against every day. That may mean that sometimes we must go out of our way...
Where Your Dollars Talk
<p>In our family, I spend most of the money at retail stores. Jim spends most of the money online. When we have the choice, we choose retailers that we know are either pro-god, pro-family, pro-country, or at least neutral on these subjects. Finding neutral companies is very difficult. Our country is polarized even in our retail environment. Years ago, we took a bullseye to a certain retailer and stopped shopping there because they supported the abortion industry. Today, they are one of the largest retail supporters of alternative lifestyles. When our money walks, our money talks. Recently, a large...
Speak Up for What's Right
<p>Each one of you has a workplace that is your ministry place. A mission field full of lost and hopeless people who need to meet Jesus. The people you work with and for may be blinded to all of the destruction around them to the family and to our country. Yet they may be funding it inadvertently. Many companies support organizations whose sole aim is to destroy the family or our country because of pressure from the outside. Suppose they knew there was pressure from the inside to stop supporting those organizations; that could make a difference. Ask questions...
The Hidden Agenda of Workplaces
<p>How do we know if our company is pro-Christianity, pro-God, pro-family, or pro-US of A? Is it even important for us to know these things? I think it is. Almost every organization has excess dollars that they are investing in other organizations with an agenda. What is the agenda that your company or organization is supporting? Are they supporting your values, neutral on them or working against them? What we are warning about today is making sure you're not supporting companies fighting against the very things that we know and love: God, family, and country. I hope it doesn't...
Who Signs Your Real Paycheck?
<p>It's important to know who we work for. I don't mean the name of your boss or the name of your company. I mean, who is your company? What do they stand for? What do they support with their profits? We need to know everything about the company where we invest 40 to 50 hours weekly. I'm just saying you need to be aware of the company you're working for to make sure that they're not taking your hard-earned hours and turning them into a campaign to destroy the biblical worldview that this great country was founded upon. Who do you...
Power Drain or Power Source?
<p>When the internet was created, the goal was the free-flowing of shared information for the good of humanity; what resulted was much more sinister than that. How do you love the Lord your God with all your strength if you spend too much time on the internet looking and experiencing things that sap your strength? That fills you with filth, that plagues you with guilt and shame. Living in this world makes it impossible to Love God to the fullest. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy; Jesus came to bring life so we can live it to the...
