Get to know your workmates

We all like to be treated as a whole person and be appreciated in all our complexity. People at work around us could appreciate us moulded by their past experiences of family, school, religion, health issues and relationships.

How much do you know about your work colleagues?

Christians are called to show love and share the hope that we have. Knowing about our colleagues interests and lives can help us to:

Show kindness and compassion
A young mum who has been up half the night with a crying baby might be moody and cranky at work. Understanding will help you be considerate and kind. She might really appreciate you making her a cup of tea or offering to cover her so that she can get home to her family. The middle-aged man going through a divorce appreciates being cut a bit of slack for his lack of focus at work. His crisis will pass and he’ll give back double to the firm for being understood and appreciated when things were hard.

Build Friendships
God designed people to exist in relationships. We're better with people and we can make people better, especially if we're doing it to be a blessing to workplace. Building relationships at work are not just fulfilling God's design for us, but can make our work more effective and enjoyable. Take the time to care and be a friend to others, without expecting anything in return. If you're a trustworthy person, then people will open up to you. You can offer to help, pray or listen to their anecdote about the weekend. Listening makes it easier to talk about the things on their heart and will generate a gold mine of conversations and strengthen your friendship.

Share your faith sensitively
Knowing about your colleague's beliefs or religious background will help you to talk about Christian things in a more sensitive way. Sensitively asking people about their family, and if their family has any religious beliefs, helps me respect how they think about God and the world. This helps me to know the best way to talk to them about Jesus. For example, someone who grew up in a church or religious group but decided to leave that community might well be suspicious of organized religion. It might help to talk about Jesus more personally and avoid church discussions to begin with. They may also think religion is about what you do to be saved, so focussing on the grace of Jesus might also help.

So when you're at work, get to know your colleagues! It's an important way to show kindness, build friendships and share your faith sensitively.

This article is based on a devotion by Craig Josling as part of the "40 Rockets" series.