Spirit of Excellence*

      A "spirit of excellence" means that we will have to do hard work even if we don't want to, and when we become less, we can actually do more than without God's help inside us. The Bible says that the harder we work the more we get rewarded. The Pilgrims, when they were at Plymouth Plantation for the first two months shared everything, so when someone works really hard they have to share with the someone who does not work hard . After those two months they realized that this was not fair, so they changed it each so that each person had to "sow what they reaped." We get rewarded for how much you work we do, so we have to work harder if we want to enjoy more.

       Don't always think that since we are doing the bigger job, we are doing the better job.  Sometimes we do a bigger job to make ourselves look better instead of to make God look better.  But if we do a big job poorly instead of choosing to do a little job very well, God isn't getting much glory. A small job done well is better than a big job done poorly.

       As Believers, we can't leave a job half done, because we have to show God's workmanship in  everything we do;  that is the real meaning of a "spirit of excellence." In the Bible, Daniel was "distinguished above all others" because of his "spirit of excellence."  We should stand out, too.  We should also remember that everything we do points to Jesus. When we do a bad job, people can say well, if Jesus is in them, and they act like everybody else, why should I follow Him? So having a spirit of excellence means raising the standard of our work habits because we know that people see Jesus in us and we want to show Him through us.

*Daniel 6:3