Is Productivity on God’s Top Ten List?
What is your greatest struggle as a woman? Would you name envy, anger, lust, selfishness, dishonesty, greed, or pride—things that God names as sins? Do you even think much about such attitudes? Or do you rank organization and efficiency as more important qualities to have? Does God put productivity as a top ten character trait?God doesn't speak much about organization and efficiency in his Word; his concerns focus on the heart and what grows out of it. In contrast, George Barna’s poll of women in the church found that half refer to disorganization as their greatest struggle; next in line was inefficiency at 42%.
Why are we are more troubled about the lack of qualities that lead to productivity than those that create character?
Perhaps we don't realize how destructive such sins as pride, selfishness, anger, and dishonesty are as they lead to broken relationships with other people and with God. It may be that because our fast-paced culture idealizes organization over character, we in the church have fallen into the same thinking. It's far easier to characterize myself as messy, unmotivated, or lazy than it is to recognize my pride and selfishness. If I consider the serious ways that the latter qualities affect my relationships or my ability to show Christ to others, however, I understand why God identifies them as sins.
If you are disorganized or inefficient, you may be encouraged to know that such personality traits don't really matter in the eternal scheme of things. Yes, we should use our time wisely and care well for our resources, but in the end it is our character, what is in our hearts, that matters most.
As believers in Christ, we should turn our concern to the sins that entangle us, grateful that God's Spirit is there to enable us to change. Let's make time in our regular weekly schedule to be in God's Word, asking him to show us the sins we harbor in our hearts, knowing they undercut love, grace, and peace.
Rather than evaluate our struggles from a business viewpoint, let's see ourselves from God's perspective so that we change in ways that matter the most.
Kay Daigle
Kay is a life-long Texan whose favorites are Tex-Mex, books that feed her soul or make her think, good movies and travel to new places. Her great joy is to serve God by teaching the Bible and developing women as servant-leaders. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Beyond Ordinary Women Ministries, which provides free videos, podcasts and articles as well as low-cost Bible studies to prepare Christian women for leadership. (beyondordinarywomen.org) Kay spent ten years leading women’s ministries on church staffs, most recently at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas. Kay is the author of From Ordinary Woman to Spiritual Leader: Grow your Influence, a practical guide to help Christian women influence others by applying foundational leadership skills to their lives and ministries, and a number of Bible studies for women, some are available at bible.org and the newer ones are found at beyondordinarywomen.org. Kay earned an M.A.C.E. from Dallas Theological Seminary and a D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Effective Ministries to Women. Kay’s family includes a husband, two grown children, one son-in-law, two hysterical granddaughters and a Goldendoodle.
