Work with Purpose | Honoring Up
Description
Experience a powerful exploration of “honoring up” in the workplace —a transformative approach that challenges you to see the value in every leader, even when they fall short of our ideals. In this compelling keynote at the Work with Purpose Conference, Lauren Hays, Betenbough Companies team member, recounts a vivid story of a chaotic meeting, where a leader’s outburst left everyone questioning their commitment. Yet, drawing from the sacrificial love of Jesus and timeless biblical wisdom, she reveals that honoring up isn’t about condoning poor behavior—it’s about reflecting Christ’s humility and grace.
Key insights include:
• Recognizing that honoring authority stems from God’s unconditional love, demonstrated when Christ died for us despite our unworthiness.
• Learning practical strategies like praying for our leaders to see their inherent value, as exemplified by a real-life testimony of a team member who transformed her perspective through prayer and empathy.
• Drawing inspiration from biblical figures such as Esther and Daniel, who used wisdom and courage to influence even the most challenging leaders for the greater good.
• Embracing the idea that our purpose transcends our roles, empowering us to lead by example in both professional and personal settings.
Reflect on thought-provoking questions and discover actionable steps to cultivate a workplace culture of mutual respect and unity. Join us to learn how honoring up can not only transform your work environment but also deepen your connection to the values that guide your life.
we had all been called into work so we
started to gather in our conference room
each of us putting our things down at
our spot and my boss came in and and she
always took her same place and she would
carry these big binders with her and she
would shove a bunch of papers in that
she needed for her work and so she sets
her start her stuff down she starts our
meeting and about 10 minutes into it
something triggers her and she starts
yelling and screaming and she’s cussing
at us and all of a sudden she gets so
mad she pushes her stuff away from her
and as her stuff goes our stuff there’s
just papers flying everywhere and then
she gets up and leaves the room and and
leaves her staff sitting in
there and I remember
thinking is this what I gave up my
Saturday
for and as a believer
how do I respond to
that we know that the Bible teaches us
to honor those who are in Authority but
how do we do that when the leader
doesn’t deserve that and and why why do
we do
that it’s because of Jesus and what he’s
done for
us Romans 58 says but God demonstrates
his own own love for us and this while
we were still sinners Christ died for us
you see when we didn’t deserve it he
died for us when we didn’t deserve it
and when we understand that his
sacrificial love for us the gift that it
is then we understand that it should
infiltrate every corner of our lives but
not only does he love us unconditionally
and sacrificially
he also equips us listen to this quote
uh from the book The Hidden pieace it
says imagine a future you walking into
every room at work with family and
social settings with a humble confidence
formed by the Holy Spirit how powerful
and stabilizing would it feel to be
certain that regardless of any situation
you walk into positive or negative you
are connected to him his love and his
resources whatever would happen you know
in your bones God’s got me I’m going to
be okay and he will get me through it
and this is our reality as followers of
Jesus he equips us for each moment of
each day and so when we understand his
love for us and that he equips us man
then we understand that there is a
calling on every area of our lives and
it’s different and it’s it’s difficult
especially when the leader doesn’t
deserve it and it’s
countercultural but because of Jesus and
his love we we Lead Out by honoring up
so what does that even look like
practically first we see the value in
people my friend Rebecca works for an
accounting firm and she used to work for
one of the um big four accounting firms
and there was a time when she was at one
of those firms that she said the fatigue
that her leader was causing from the
toxic environment that she created was
so great that Rebecca said it was
starting to take a toll on her
physically and so she said she started
to pray about the situation because she
just was at a loss and she said she
decided to start to pray for her leader
and she said I noticed when I prayed for
my leader I started to see the value in
her as a person and she said I started
to practice empathy toward her she said
I would ask myself what pressure might
she be facing right now and she said I
would even think about if I were in her
shoes how would I want my direct reports
to respond to me and she said and then I
started to treat her like that she said
I started to pray that my leader would
be successful and she said in fact I
prayed for success in every area of her
life and she said when I started to pray
for her
success I couldn’t hate her any longer
and she said that at the end of their
busy season that leader actually came to
Rebecca and she said hey I want you to
know I saw that you were empathetic to
me during that busy time see the leader
saw that Rebecca cared for her because
she saw her value and we see the value
in people it’s a way to Lead Out by
honoring
up but next we humbly bring our best I
think Esther in the Bible she does this
really well so she was married to King
Xerxes who was a pagan evil selfish King
who he listened to evil people and this
guy named hmon was one of those evil
people and hmon comes up with this
horrible plan to kill all the Jews and
it seems that Xerxes just nonchalantly
agrees to it so hmon sends out this
decree for all the Jews to be killed and
in Esther 3 :s 15 it says so this is
after the decree went out it says and
the king and hmon sat down to drink but
the city of Susa was thrown into
confusion and when the city was thrown
into confusion we see Esther who once
questioned her identity as a child of
God Esther she steps up to humbly bring
her best but what I love about Esther is
she is so
strategic I think that she actually
employs this divinely inspired wisdom
and social awareness and how she
approaches King Xerxes and if you read
chapters eser or excuse me Esther
chapters 4-8 you see how strategic she
is so she plans this banquet for Xerxes
and hmon and it seems like she’s really
thoughtful in how she approaches the
king and that she’s even thought through
the right timing and how to approach the
king and when she does approach the king
he listens to her he changes the decree
and the Jews are
saved you see she humbly brought her
best and she was strategic and those are
all tips that we can take and use in our
work and and we might not be in life or
death situations um every day but I
think what’s interesting is that we can
be strategic in how we approach our
leaders Craig relle says to know their
rhythms and the best time to approach
them so maybe it’s not first thing
Monday morning but he says that when you
do approach them approach them with
kindness and clear
communication or maybe humbly bringing
your best looks my my friend um Heather
she has her own um Consulting business
and what I’ve noticed about her is she
has chosen to bring her best attitude
and her best work and she has this one
client who they just operate in a
chaotic environment and in fact there’s
not a lot that they really deserve there
things are always up in the air they
don’t communicate well but what I’ve
noticed about Heather is that she has
chosen to operate with care and Grace
toward them in fact she told me one time
she said I just don’t enter into their
chaos I don’t enter into their chaos but
what she’s doing and how she works with
them is she’s showing them a different
way to work because Heather does her
work on time with excellence and she
doesn’t scramble at the last minute she
does her best work and she brings her
best attitude and it’s a way to Lead Out
by honoring
up and
then we speak truth Daniel in the Bible
he does this really well with King
Nebuchadnezzar so Nebuchadnezzar was
another evil selfish King he captures
Jerusalem and Daniel is actually um one
of the people who’s captured and so uh
Nebuchadnezzar has this dream and in
those days dreams were believed to
predict the future of the kingdom and so
they were so important that
Nebuchadnezzar actually had people on
staff to help interpret the dreams
except in this specific situation no one
could interpret the dream and so
Nebuchadnezzar gets mad and he says he’s
going to kill all the wise people and
the interpreters and again that that’s
when we see a follower of God step up
and you can see Daniel’s response in
Daniel chapter 2 and it’s really
interesting because it parallels
Esther’s response because Daniel he
asked his friends to pray for him he
prays he boldly approaches the king and
he interprets the dream and he credits
God for interpreting the dream and
what’s interesting about Daniel’s
situation is he kind of remains the
Source um to Nebuchadnezzar that points
Nebuchadnezzar to God’s truth and down
the road Nebuchadnezzar is humbled and
he actually confesses to the one true
God and my study notes say that God used
Daniel’s faithfulness to bring light to
Nebuchadnezzar you see an undeserving
leader came to know God’s mercy because
a follower of God chose to lead out by
honoring up and The God Who did that is
the same God who is still working in all
of our businesses and in all of our
lives today and he wants to use you just
like he’s using my friend Rebecca in her
accounting firm just like he used Esther
just like he’s using Heather in her
Consulting business and just like he
used Daniel so lead out out by honoring
up I want to introduce you to my
family you can tell who the spicy one is
in the bunch more on her in a minute but
in September of 2023 we moved from Leck
to Nashville and when we moved to
Nashville Haden our son wanted to play
soccer so we enrolled him on a team and
we immediately get this email that says
thanks for joining the league your team
has no coach and I was like uh-uh this
is not on us we moved here literally
like two weeks ago somebody else needs
to step up will we keep getting these
emails that say your team has no coach
so finally my husband Brandon replies to
all the parents and he says I have never
played soccer I don’t know how to play
soccer I have never coached soccer but
if no one else will do this I’ll be the
coach and so you can guess Brandon
became the coach so he organizes his
first practice he we have at this park
and the guys are all playing over here
there’s a a playground over here where
Carolina Tate our daughter’s playing and
I don’t even think she’s paying
attention to what’s going on and later
that night she comes up to me and she’s
like Mama I’m really worried and I said
what are you worried about cuz I thought
it had been kind of an average day and
she said I am really worried that Daddy
doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing as
soccer
coach and I was like well he technically
doesn’t but it’s going to be okay we’re
he’s going to figure it out out so the
season starts here are the blue
Predators we had a really strong dut
game that’s about the only thing we had
going for us but the season starts and
we get to know some of these guys on our
team and we learned that some of them
are just going through really hard times
with their families and Brandon was able
to be a consistent fun
encouraging presence in their life each
week and I remember thinking huh maybe
it’s bigger than the
game and then we had well we had a lot
of losses but we had one really tough
loss in particular and you know how
after the game like you line up and you
go and you shake hands with the the
other team well Brandon’s getting
everybody in line and he gets them all
in the line and then he comes to the
head of the line to lead the team and
what he doesn’t see is that everyone
behind him these cute kids put their
hands behind their back and when they
walked past the winning team they refuse
to shake hands and as a parent you’re
mortified cuz you want to be like I
didn’t teach that and so like we’re all
screaming and we’re like Brandon do you
see what’s happening and he turns around
and he sees that they’ve refused to
shake hands and he’s like everyone
everyone take a knee and he’s like
absolutely not that is not how you lose
in life you will lose that is not how
you do it you hold your head up high and
you honor the winning team and he keeps
keep going on and on and I remember
again in that moment thinking huh maybe
it’s bigger than the game because see
that was a life lesson that a little guy
takes with him as he goes and it hit me
in that moment that Brandon’s purpose
was bigger than his
role his purpose was bigger than his
role of an
unpaid volunteer coach to 5-year-olds
who couldn’t
win and your purpose is bigger than your
role as you lead out by honoring up your
purpose is bigger than your role see
Jesus calls us to follow
him to see the value in people like he
did to humbly bring our best like he did
and to speak truth like he did our roles
are probably going to shift from time to
time and in fact they’re less important
but the focus is to point others to
Jesus and his amazing
love so today in our jobs let’s Lead Out
by honoring up
and I know that this is easier to say
and harder to put into practice so we’re
going to make a plan right now and I
want you to just take a few moments and
think about what’s one step that you can
take to honor up
Tags: Honoring other, Work with Purpose
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