Your ability to do your work competently is based on your aptitude and skills. But the way in which you perform your skills has to do with your attitude. Attitude is how you carry out your job. Your skills may not affect your attitude, but your attitude will definitely affect the way you perform your skills at work.

Attitudes are something that we develop over time, they do not just appear immediately. They are an emotional response to what we believe about something or someone. It might be that we were treated badly as a child by one of our parents or siblings. Over time we develop a belief about ourselves and the other person. Whether good or bad, these beliefs become the emotional basis by which we form attitudes. Attitudes come from our experience but also are formed from what we learn from our observations. All of us have formed attitudes in life and in our work.

Here are just a few beliefs about your work that are sure to create a bad attitude:

- My work is spiritually meaningless; it is only worth a paycheck to me. Having this perspective or belief will cause me to withdraw from people at work, displaying the attitude that I really do not care or "don't bother me. I will just do my work and go home."

- My airline doesn't care about anything except money. Well, there could truth to this, but working with this kind of belief often affects our work performance. Actually, it can be detrimental to your work performance. So do we just let it slide and forget about it? No! Instead, Christians are to have the belief that they work for reasons higher than company benefits and pay. We do our work wholeheartedly as unto Christ because it is Christ whom we serve.

- Everyone is only in it for themselves, so why should I care about anyone except me? With today's problems in the workplace, this belief is like a subtle undetected virus, and it permeates many a workplace. It shows itself when I respond to things by only considering my own interest and no one else's. I may even put on a spiritual guise in order to defend issues, but actually I'm really considering myself first and foremost.

Attitudes will affect our work and our relationships at work, but more so for the Christian, attitudes determine our spiritual altitude at work. Why not take an inventory of the prevailing attitudes at work and in your own heart? You may need to evaluate some of the beliefs you have formed there and compare them with how they line up with God's truth. Jesus said in John 8:32 that knowing the truth will set you free.

Learning His Truth,

Courtesy of FCAP