+1 Value

Feb. 5, 2012
John Maxwell, my favorite author, always says in his books "add value to people". Everytime I come across this passage it doesn't make sense to me.

On one of my interviews, the manager asked "what value can you add to our company?". I wasn't able to answer it because I didn't know what he meant.

Yesterday I was with my friends at the bookstore, looking for good books to read, talking about the books we've read, about our habits of reading, etc. One of my friends just isn't too interested in books. I encouraged him to read at least one book in a year. Then I told them why I read books.

I told them how I learned the "value" of reading and who gave me this value. When I was a child, I have this uncle who would always bring a book whenever he comes at our house for a visit. He would always tell us stories that he learned from what he read. And sometimes he would buy books and dictionaries for us. Little did I know he was already changing our values by adding a new one!

While explaining this to my friends, I realized that I finally got to understand what John always says "add value to people". My uncle did add 1 value to my existing set of values. He added the value of reading when I was still a child.

I like the way my pastor explained this through the life of David. Starting from 2 Samuel 23:8, the mighty warriors of David are listed. Among these mighty warriors are "The Three" people closest to him: Josheb-Basshebeth, Eleazar and Shammah.

This is how the bible described this Three:

These are the names of David's mighty warriors: Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter.
(2Sa 23:8)

Next to him was Eleazar... As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David...for battle. Then the Israelites retreated, but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day.
(2Sa 23:9-10)

Next to him was Shammah... When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.
(2Sa 23:11-12)

Now these Three were not mighty warriors. Going back to the previous chapter, this is how the bible described these men before they came to David:

David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam... All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him. (1Sa 22:1-2)

How did they become great warriors? No doubt, David imparted to them his values, values that enabled him to kill Goliath. He added values to these people.