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Motivational Monday: Work as Worship of God and Work Ethic

Monday, September 5, 2016

The twelfth Glad-Tidings

"It is enjoined upon every one of you to engage in some form of occupation, such as crafts, trades and the like. We have graciously exalted your engagement in such work to the rank of worship unto God, the True One. Ponder ye in your hearts the grace and the blessings of God and render thanks unto Him at eventide and at dawn. Waste not your time in idleness and sloth. Occupy yourselves with that which profiteth yourselves and others. Thus hath it been decreed in this Tablet from whose horizon the daystar of wisdom and utterance shineth resplendent."

Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, 3. Bis̲h̲árát (Glad-Tidings)

The Motivational Monday prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 
Today is Labor Day in the US, and here are eight quotes   regarding labor and work...
pick one and tell us what it means to you (or feel free to use a different quote if you'd like).

Work As Worship

I didn't encounter the concept of work as worship until I became a Baha'i. The concepts I found most attractive when I was investigating the Baha'i Faith was the three onenesses: (1) the oneness of God (a single essence with many names), the oneness of humanity (the human race is one species of various colors), and the basic oneness of religion (all religions are sent by God through various prophets). After signing my declaration card, I deepened in the concepts and laws revealed by Baha'u'llah. While deepening and reading the scriptures Baha'u'llah revealed, I discover the twelfth glad-tidings about work being a form of worship.

At first it was difficult for me to understand and practice this concept, but I attempted anyway. As the years go by it's a little easier. I can do some things knowing that my attitude is one of worshiping God, while when I do other jobs I find my attitude going into a "Why am I doing this?" attitude. At these times, I have to stop what I'm doing, get away for the job or the computer, and say some prayer or read scripture. When I get out of the worship attitude I run across a prompt or some other quote that reminds me I need to check my attitude.

The "Blogging Circle of Friends "  prompt for DAY 1391
Monday, September 5, is labor day. The day we remember the worker.
Write something related to labor (of any type) or work related.

Work Ethic

According to dictionary.com1 work ethic is defined as "a belief in the moral benefit and importance of work and its inherent ability to strengthen character."2 The Oxford Dictionarise3 defines work ethic as "The principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward."4 A further search of the Oxford Dictionaries reveals the definition of the Protestant work ethic as "The view that a person’s duty is to achieve success through hard work and thrift, such success being a sign that one is saved."5 These three examples shows that various cultures and religions have slightly different definitions of work ethic. This brings me to the Baha'i definition of work ethic, which is that work perform in the proper attitude is worship of God. This definition means that I, as a proclaimed adherent of the Baha'i Faith, must look at my attitude when performing any type of work or labor.

Footnotes
1  http://www.dictionary.com
2  http://www.dictionary.com/browse/work-ethic
3  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/
4  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/work-ethic?q=wo...
5  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/protestant-ethi...