I Hate My Job: A 7-Day Devotional Guide for Christian Working WomenНамуна

Psalm 34:13-14 – Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech. Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.

Application: When I worked in restaurants, it was commonplace to perpetuate a kitchen environment where we would lament our woes on our aching feet while counting our crummy tips – and I was right in the center of it. When I got my first office job working a front desk, I thought, naively, that I had reached a safe place where the dysfunction of the service industry would be a thing of the past. Wrong. In the ten-plus years I've worked in a traditional office, I've learned that people are people. Sinners are sinners. And when we are hurt, we hurt back. Friends, it is of the utmost importance that, no matter our woes or our hurts, we are the ones to retreat from toxic conversations that bubble up in the break room or over happy hour. Use these opportunities, these spiritual softballs, to take a posture of humble curiosity. Ask thoughtful questions and practice active listening. Offer space to contain others' frustrations without snowballing them to become more significant than they are.

Prayer Suggestion: Write down 1 to 3 colleagues with whom you regularly interact and with whom you've taken part in gossiping about those in your workplace. Confess these past conversations with God and pray specifically for those who have been the subject of your gossip. Afterward, pray over your relationship with the colleagues you wrote down and for an opportunity to create a new approach to conversation.