Work above and beyond the call of duty

​I had gone on a mission trip.  it wasn't my first one, so I knew what was ahead.  If some of you have ever gone, you know it is a mixture of good and bad, easy and hard, ups and downs.

This trip was mostly ups for me and I have many wonderful memories.

The first night there, the  person who was heading up the trip came up and put his arms on my shoulders.  He said, "I have a feeling that I am going to give you the award at the end of week for going above and beyond the call of duty."

I have no idea why he said that to me since we had really not done anything up to that point for me to warrant such a glowing statement.  Nevertheless, I poured myself into the week.  It was hot (117 at one point) and dirty, but we got the job done the way we had hoped we would and I was proud of our work.

The last night, the person who said to me at the first of the week, that he thought I would be the one to receive his "award", stood up and gave this award to someone else.

I didn't give it a second thought at the time, because I was not there in order to receive an award for trying to do what I felt like the Lord had called me to do, but I started thinking about that incident this morning.  I have watched that person through the years and have decided that for some reason he decided that I was not deserving.  

When I say that that is ok with me, I mean it.  I don't want to do anything I do for the praise of men.  I have looked back on those 2 weeks, and tried to analyze the work our family did and all I care about is hearing the Lord say "well done thy good and faithful servant."

We must always do whatever we do "as unto the Lord"....not for the praise of man.