“The stones used in the construction of the Temple were prefinished at the quarry, so the entire structure was built without the sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site.”

Being prepared and ready for what is next is like bringing in prefinished materials to a work site. Just the word, “prefinished” tells a story in itself in how we think about our work. If we are more about prefinishing than starting from scratch on site, then we likely to be better ready for the curve balls that inevitably come our way. This week I was coaching a CEO who was getting ready to have a difficult meeting. I encouraged him to spend time the night before writing down the three points that he wanted to get across and to be conscious of getting those three points across before the conversation was completed. I asked him to bring his thoughts in prefinished. This doesn’t mean that he, and all of us at some point, have to shift and be ready to make accommodations or changes, but we are so much better off when we come ready and prefinished.

The same can be said in how we approach bringing glory to God in our work. We can also come prefinished to our jobs if we have prepared our spirit through prayer, reading God’s Word and being in fellowship and accountability for when we hit the office door. We can come prefinished and ready for what will come our way. It may well be that this prefinishing is what allows us to keep from being marred, scraped up, dinged and dented. Not that we have any promises that we will have it any easier or better off than a non-believer, but we know that God will never put more on us than we can bear. And, if we do the work to be even that much more ready then we can reap the benefits that God wants to give us. This weekend think about where you can be more prefinished and then start working on that now.

Reference: 1 Kings 6:7 (New Living Testament)