Does anyone remember pocket protectors? If not, these were plastic inserts that one would wear in their dress shirt pockets so that when a pen(s) would be placed in the pocket the ink if it linked would not stain the shirt. When I first went to work out of school at Pratt & Whitney, the aircraft engine maker in East Hartford, CT,. pocket protectors were the in thing. In fact they had a version there where you could slide your ID badge into the protector and the protector became multiple-purpose. Over time, in corporate America and in our culture, the plastic pocket protector became a symbol of “nerdiness” and you just don’t see many of them any more. That doesn’t mean we don’t look for ways to continue to protect ourselves at work. There are all kinds of protectors we count on to shield us from getting hurt, dejected, deflated or run-down. for example, think about the defenses we put up just to ensure that our egos stay intact. It’s not surprising that we tend to be way more open with others about ourselves in our personal life than we are with whom we work. While we want to be the same person all the time, at work we sometimes we have to have these protections to build up the persona that can’t be taken advantage. We may not even realize it but we could be spending more time and energy on building up the protections around us than we are enjoying and giving our best to our work and our work teammates. Today would be a great day to think about what protections we have established for ourselves and see which ones are really rationale and which aren’t and then we should be reminded that all the protection we really need comes from the Lord our God. David writes, “For the Lord God is our light and protector.” See, there is all the protection we really need. Start today with the prayer of protection and ask God to help you turn over all of the other silly protections that have been built up around ourselves and trust in Him for our real protection.

Reference: Psalm 84:11 (New Living Testament)