Today's Devotional

January 6, 2009

Subject: Lowering The Reward Bar

Daniel 2:6 - "But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof."

Daniel 5:17 - "Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation."

Maybe I'm just strange this way, but I don't believe that you build true motivation and inspiration by giving people rewards for doing routine things that they should be doing anyway. We were in a faculty meeting yesterday and the discussion with the teachers was on a way to prevent students from being tardy. There were about 7 or 8 different groups discussing the matter and then we all had a spokesperson for each group giving their view on what we should do. I was simply amazed at the number of groups saying that we should give various types of rewards for those students who are on time every day. That to me is lowering the reward bar. Of course you could reward people for every simple act, but then if there is no reward, what will happen?

I don't have an absolute answer on when to reward for every situation in life but I do know that there are times when we've got to be motivated by more than just rewards. Daniel was. Though he could have easily been rewarded for what he did for the king, his motivation wasn't for the reward. He was simply using the talents and gifts that God gave him.

Today where is your "reward bar." Does there have to be external incentive (cash, vacation time, prizes) for everything that you do? Raise the bar. Some things can simply be done because God has given you the ability and talent to do it. In the end, He'll surely provide the reward and no one can beat His reward system.

Carlen