I don't normally bring my church life into this blog but today I'm going to make an exception - the lesson just fit too perfectly with business.

The Children's Sermon message today was about how people can be good but not good enough. The example was someone, let's call him Bob, who was focused on something he wanted to work on and a nearby person, let's call her Sue, was coughing. The cough was annoying. It was distracting Bob from what HE wanted to work on.

Bob commented on the cough and how loud it was.

Sue apologized.

Sue coughed some more. Louder.

Bob said, "Do you want a cough drop?"

Sue gratefully accepted it.

Now Bob wasn't a bad person; he didn't lie, cheat or steal, in fact he did give Sue a cough drop that eased her pain.

However, did he do all that he could to help Sue?

The lesson was that God wants us to do more than just the bare minimum. Being good isn't good enough.

Tie to business: how often have we just done "get by" work for our employer or a customer that we don't particularly like? It isn't like we are cheating our employer or our customer; however, we aren't really doing ALL we might to provide the best possible outcome.

I see this in kids today; the bare minimum effort being put forth. "I did as I was told," is often the response from our kids and our employees. But there was so much more we could have done.

Or we might have done the task with a brighter attitude, a smile, and a gesture of warmth.

Just doing good work isn't going to cut it in the long run because, in business, there will always be someone there willing to go the extra mile; lend a helping hand.

Sometimes it means putting aside what we are working on right that minute to truly help the others in our department or a cranky customer.

Do you know someone who is good at what they do but perhaps isn't good enough? Might it be you?

This week focus on looking for opportunities to reach out a helping hand and go the extra mile.

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Writer