Latest / Prayer Before Work / S01E31 - COURAGE TO ADMIT YOU WERE WRONG "Three Words That Change Everything"
Transcript
- Sean Graver: Welcome back to Prayer Before Work. I'm glad you're here today. So now let's slow it down for a few minutes before the day gets into full gear. This one's gonna be a little direct today, but I think it'll be worth it. Let's read a scripture and then we'll pray. So we're gonna be in Proverbs 28-13 that says, whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. So the principle here extends well beyond the spiritual. In any relationship, including professional ones, ⁓ concealment compounds, when we cover up mistake, protecting our outward image, if we avoid the acknowledgement of it, we add the weight of the cover-up to the weight of the original thing. But confession, real admission, breaks the cycle. It's where mercy enters. I was wrong. Three words, remarkably hard to say in a work environment where competency is very valuable currency and admitting error feels like losing some of it. But here's what I've actually seen. The leaders and colleagues who can say those three words quickly and cleanly are almost always the most trusted, not less. Now everybody already knows when something went wrong. The only question is whether you're going to be honest about it. And honesty, even costly honesty, builds more credibility than a well-managed deflection ever could. When I was just out of school, I was the manager of a fast food restaurant and discovered that a cash register was $100 short. Company policy was that the manager on duty would be terminated for a loss like this. Well, I called my district manager anyway to report it. He came over, he reviewed my findings, and with a huge apology, he fired me. On my way out, he asked me to drop off the daily bank deposit at the bank. Talk about irony. But then about an hour later, my phone rang. The district manager was asking me to come back. They found the person who stole the money. So concealing doesn't make the thing go away. It just makes you carry it alone. while also managing the cover. Now I could have gone to an ATM and pulled out $100 and just saved my job. But even though I didn't take the hundred, it was a cover up and I wasn't willing to carry that. Is there something you need to own today that you've been kind of managing around? But God, I don't want to be someone who conceals, not with you, not with the people I work with, but I know there are places in the past where I have made the wrong choice instead of just telling the truth. But give me the courage today and every day to say, I was wrong when I was wrong. Quickly, clearly, without over explaining or redirecting, just, I was wrong. Here's what I'm going to do differently. Help me trust that the mercy Proverbs promises is real, that honest admission opens the door, the concealment just keeps locked, and that the three words I'm most reluctant to say might be the ones that change the most. So make me someone who confesses quickly and moves forward cleanly. In Jesus' name, amen. And go make today count.