discipline

On the book of Daniel is about a disciplined young man. We see him as a teenager captured during a war. Even in these circumstances Daniel tries to honor his God. He convinces his captores to allow him and his fellow Jewish prisoners to continue eating per their Jewish customs. God honors these faithful young men with their health.  They were disciplined. Daniel continued this lifestyle his whole life. He prays to his God daily and that get him into trouble. Daniel was a faithful servant and prospered because of it. Daniels co-workers were envious of him and tried to find a way to bring him down. They new he was faithful in his prayer life. In this 6th chapter of Daniel he is now in his 80's and still practices his faith the same as when he was a teenager. His enemies got the King to make a law that no one could worship or pray to any God other than the King for 30 days. As soon as this law went into effect they went to Daniel's home and witnessed his praying as he had done for as long as they had known him. Per the law, Daniel was thrown into a den of lions. Daniel survived the night in the den of lions because the God he served shut the mouth of the lions. Daniel didn't know how this would turn out, but he served God anyway. He would win, no matter how it ended. If God had not chosen to deliver him, he would have been ushered into an eternity with God. this story of Daniel shows how disciplined he was his whole life. God blessed him. I thought about my own life. I certainly have not been disciplined as Daniel was. But I have been blessed. I received promotion I didn't seek several times. Once after things were going badly for my company and layoffs were looming, I received an upgrade to the next level. I was a level 2 employee retention 1.  Retention 1 employees are rated to be kept longer than a retention level 2 or 3. I knew I was very close to being laid off. My supervisor came to me and said he was going to make me a level 3 employee. A grade higher than I was. I also knew I would then start as a level 3 employee as a retention 3. those first to go when layoffs came. I thought I was doomed. I didn't realize at the time that all level 2 would be gone before they started laying off the level 3's.
I thought they would keep the level 2 retention 1 longer than retention 3 in level 3. I was mistaken, he saved my job. By the end of that month every level 2 regardless of retention rating was gone. Even though I was starting at the bottom of the level 3's I still had my job. I wasn't a perfect employee but I did try to keep myself busy.  Another time I agreed to take a temporary assignment as lead for our group until they could find a lead. I didn't seek it, in fact I had not even planned to apply. I was content with what I was doing. After a couple of months our supervisor asked if I would just take the job. I didn't have to go through a selection process, interview etc. They just gave me the job.  I had a new supervisor and most leads were level 4's. my supervisor wanted to try and get me an upgrade to level 4 as the other leads and had me do a write up about some of the more recent things I had done. She was new and thought she'd have a battle getting the upgrade.  When she came back from the meeting where promotions were decided on, she told me, it was so easy. She said your reputation precedes you and many of the supervisors she was competing with for raises knew me. They knew me and how I had worked for them years earlier and it was a slam dunk. I did  not have an over abundance of self confidence but God protected and promoted me anyway.  I did try to keep busy on all my jobs and there was a time in my first salary job when I worked alone in this office on second shift, I would do the office clerks job when I was done with my work. I didn't do it to get noticed but simply to keep busy. It was noticed by management and got me my next job. God has certainly been good to me. I do not claim to be the most disciplined individual, but my efforts  were always rewarded. God bless, LVZ.