Hi, and thanks for joining us for another encouragement from the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

Our reading, titled Thankful for Monday, was written by Po Fong Chia.

I used to dread Mondays. Sometimes, when I got off the train to head to a previous job,

I'd sit at the station for a while, trying to delay reaching the building, if only for a few minutes.

My heart would be fast as I worried over meeting the deadlines and managing the moods of a temperamental boss.

For some of us, it can be especially difficult to start

another dreary work week. We may be feeling overwhelmed or unappreciated in our job.

In Ecclesiastes too, King Solomon described the toil of work when he wrote,

What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under

the sun? All their days, their work is grief and pain. While the wise king didn't give us a cure

all for making work less stressful or more rewarding, he did offer us a change in perspective.

No matter how difficult our work is,

he encourages us to find satisfaction in it with God's help. Perhaps it will come as the Holy Spirit enables us to display Christ-like character, or as we hear from someone who's been blessed

through our service, or as we remember the wisdom God provided to deal with a difficult situation.

Though our work may be difficult, our faithful God is there with us.

His presence and power can light up even gloomy days.

With his help, we can be thankful for Monday.

Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from Ecclesiastes

2 verses 17 through 25. So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.

All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for

under the sun because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that

person will be wise or foolish. Yet they will

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