1. T. O’Donnell is founder and CEO of workitdaily. com and she’s spent the last 15 years studying the reasons so many people don’t like their jobs. We spend a third or more of our days at work, yet 70 percent of us don’t like our career paths. The answer is a simple question, “What do you do?” And we all want to answer with something that will impress the person asking the question.

We’ve been trained all our lives to impress people, starting in pre-school with the smiley face on a paper. And later with an A on our report card. And still later as a star athlete or beauty contest winner, etc. And later with a pay raise or promotion at our workplace. So, as long as we judge people (and ourselves) by what they do, we’ll be less than satisfied with what we do. And while we’re thinking about what other people think about us, we’ll have trouble thinking about what we’d really like to do with our lives …

Liz Ryan agrees inForbes, “The Top Ten Reasons People Hate Their Jobs.” The first reason is “They are not respected as people at work.” Having been trained all their lives to impress their parents, teachers, peers, and supervisors; suddenly they’re not given any recognition for merely doing what they’re being paid to do.

The other nine reasons include: a lack of tools to work with, no personal life, a tyrannical or unqualified supervisor, being lied to, no opportunity for advancement, workplace politics, being underpaid and overworked, no feeling of accomplishment, and an anxious and tense workplace. Sometimes we get discouraged with a life of faith for some of the same reasons.

So Jeremiah writes, [31] The LORD says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. [32] It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.

[33] The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. [34] None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the LORD, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

My dad told me several times to find something I enjoyed doing and find a way to make a living doing it … then I’d never work a day in my life. Now Jeremiah says the old covenant in the Old Testament was an obligation, but the new covenant in the New Testament will be written on our hearts … bringing satisfaction and joy!

Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Woodland & Bold Springs UMC and, with Mary Ella, a missionary to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.