Shared Faith

I read an interesting quote from Pastor Rick Warren this week. “God is far more concerned about who you are than what you do; He’s more interested in your character than He is in your career.”

That got me thinking about my career, the four companies I’ve owned, and all the people who have worked for me the past 40 years. My wife did most of the hiring, but she made it a point to always hire the person who had good character over someone with experience. Looking back, the outstanding people she hired were the main reason for our success with every single business.

Of course character and integrity have to start at the top. Therefore we made it our company goal that “Honesty, Integrity, and Respect” would define our company and all of our actions, and therefore worked hard to lead by example.

Unfortunately, as an owner I was quite often forced to make difficult decisions that tested my character. But over time I learned how to handle those problems, first with prayer, and then second, I would go ask my wife for advice. She’s the smart one!

I remember one really difficult issue with an employee that had been with me for many years. He was caught being dishonest and neither my wife nor I were sure what to do. But then she said something that I will never forget. “Do what you think is right, I have faith in you.”

Her faith in me gave me the courage and the motivation to make a lot of difficult decisions, despite not knowing what the outcome might be. In fact, her faith in me strengthened my faith in God, and that shared faith has given both of us a consistently happy and joyful life despite a fairly constant stream of typical life problems.

Which reminded me of another quote I read this week… “Shared joy is double the joy and shared sorrow is half the sorrow. So I hope you have someone special to share your life with. And if you don’t… then pick someone with the right character, not just someone with the right experience!

 If you would like to read a very short story about someone else whose wife had faith them… see below.

     Nathaniel Hawthorne went home one day and told his wife that

     He had just been fired from his job. “Good,” she said. “Now you

     can write your book.” “But what do we live on meanwhile?”

     His wife opened a drawer filled with money. “I have always known

     that you are a man of genius,” she said. “So I saved a little each week,

     and now I have enough to last us for a year.” Hawthorne used that

     time to write The Scarlet Letter, one of the greatest masterpieces

     of American literature.