“Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”
The Work
This proverb assumes a working life, herds and flocks, and instructs a specific kind of attentiveness: know their state, look well to them. This is not distant management from a comfortable distance, checking in occasionally and hoping for the best. It is close, ongoing, personal knowledge of what has been entrusted to you.
Excellence in work is often less about occasional bursts of impressive effort and more about this kind of sustained, unglamorous attentiveness, actually knowing the state of what you are responsible for rather than assuming it is fine because no crisis has yet demanded your attention. Problems noticed early are cheaper than problems discovered late.
This applies well beyond literal herds. Know the state of your projects, your relationships at work, the actual condition of what has been placed under your care, rather than operating on outdated assumptions or convenient inattention. Diligence here is fundamentally about knowing, not just doing.
Look well today, specifically, at whatever herds and flocks are actually yours to know, whether people, projects, or resources. Attentiveness of this kind is quiet, unglamorous, and exactly the excellence this proverb commends.
Do the Work
- Name one area of responsibility you have not actually checked on recently.
- Look well at its actual current state today, not your assumptions about it.
- Address one small issue now, before it becomes a larger, later problem.
Prayer
Lord, give me the diligence to actually know the state of what you have entrusted to me, not just assume it is fine. Let me look well before problems grow. Amen.
Carry this today
Excellence knows the actual state of things, not just the assumption.