The One Phrase We All Need To Eliminate From Our Vocabulary
In the body of Christ, do you ever feel like an eyelash or a toenail, while your friends are biceps or legs?
That’s what it was like for my friend, who serves as a school janitor.
Exhausted from the extra work, she called me the other day, wondering what worth her work held. To her, it felt insignificant in the scheme of things — waxing floors, washing blackboards, wiping down every desk in every classroom.
“Jennifer,” she said, “every day, you get to look on your day’s work and know that you’ve done something for the Lord. You write blog posts and books, and you speak at conferences. You help people know how much they’re loved by Jesus.”
“But me? I empty garbage cans,” she continued. “I’m just a janitor.”
I wish I could have reached through the phone, put one hand on each of her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye when I responded to her. I told her what I want to tell you — and what I have to remind myself again and again:
There is no such thing as just a janitor, or just a mom, or just a blogger, or just a volunteer, or just a secretary, or just a (__________).
Won’t you join me at (in)courage today. I have encouraging words for anyone who is second-guessing her worth.
Maybe your life doesn’t get celebrated on Instagram. Maybe nobody is @-mentioning you for your latest book or upcoming song release.
But we need you.
Can I tell you more? Click here.
I took sociology classes in college, and one thing the teacher said stuck in my head. He said, “Without garbage collectors, there could be no cities.” There would be too much disease and death without someone to take out the trash.
Every human being is worth more than the whole world! That’s what Jesus Christ said.
I loved this post. Reminds me of a skit we used to do at camp called “Little Toe.” I’m the skit, all the parts of the body feel like they are superior and that the little toe is a nothing so little toe leaves. When little toe leaves, they all fall. They realize that little toe is important too. We all are important. Your janitor friend is such a gift just like we all are guts in our own ways.
We are all part of the body and we are all important. Oh, we need to remember this all the time. 🙂
Beautiful. I need this reminder when the day to day routine of teaching and marriage and life gets hard! Thank you for these encouraging words!
This is great! I have actually been trying to eliminate that word ‘just’ from my life for a couple of months. It is a bad habit. It is like we are apologizing constantly. So every time I find it in an email or find my self saying it, I stop and correct it. Now, this is another perspective on the word and it needs to stop. Thanks for your heart.