Christian Businesswomen of Middle Tennessee

 Opportunities or Misfortunes

by Gorin Gyurtsak

 Joseph had a dream, … He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.    (Gen. 37:5-8, NIV)

Through Joseph’s story, I learned three things about how God prepares us for our callings.

The first one is that God gives us dreams so that we can have hope during the times of preparation. When the time of preparation comes, we can know “that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us” (Rom. 3:4-5, NIV).

Secondly, Joseph, once in Egypt, had favor from God wherever he went.  However, Potiphar’s wife noticed him and, tried to seduce him, daily. I don’t know about you, but I have to make an intentional effort to keep my focus on my goals and callings on a daily basis. Just like Joseph, I fight daily the affection of things that I am not to entertain. They do not have to be sin, just as long, as they keep me away from my goals. It says in Ephesians: “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10, NIV). Therefore, not all good works are our works. 

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The Power of Positive Reinforcement

Whether you are a supervisor who must correct one of your subordinates, an employee who is at strife with a co-worker, or an individual who feels obligated to report a certain situation to your employer, there is a way to address the issue so that you will be well-received and able to work with those involved to find a resolution. Let's explore how Apostle Paul handled one of many sticky situations he had encountered. read more

Got Goals?

I once read a Peanuts comic strip that described how some of us set goals:

Charlie Brown was practicing archery in his backyard. Instead of aiming at a target, he would shoot an arrow at a fence and then walk over and draw a target around wherever the arrow stuck. Lucy walked up and asked, "Why are you doing this, Charlie Brown?" He replied, "This way, I never miss!"

We sometimes shoot our dream and goal arrows all over the place. If they actually hit something, we explain to ourselves and possibly others that that was our target all along. In reality, however, there had been little planning or strategy behind our efforts and we had not actually aimed at any specific target. read more

There is a Season for Everything:

How to Achieve Work/Life Balance

With all of the demands in our lives from family, friends, employers, and our own expectations, we can drive ourselves crazy and increase our stress to dangerous levels trying to get everything done.

When my daughter was younger, she had a favorite cartoon called "The Power Puff Girls." They were three feisty adolescent super-heroes whose motto was "Saving the world before bedtime!" How many of us have unofficially adopted that motto? We should make the best use of our time a priority, but within reason. Sometimes there is just no way to accomplish in a single day everything that we have put on our "to do" list. And there are times when those things on our list are not high priority items anyway and can be moved to our "for a rainy day" list. I am not promoting procrastination, but flexibility.  read more