I’m really a lazy person—as far as working goes—in the house—cleaning. My house doesn’t get that dirty anymore with no children around, only a husband and a mother-in-law. So I can get by with cleaning a couple of hours on Saturday and tidying up throughout the week. But am I grateful? Am I happy? No! Every Saturday while I’m cleaning I’m thinking about how horrible it is and how much I would rather be doing something else.
This last Saturday I had to laugh at myself, listening to me grumble. “For pete’s sake”, I thought, “you only have to clean a few hours each week instead of constantly like in the good old days of 7 messy children living at home. You have it made in the shade!”
Interestingly enough, that night my daughter called to talk about the lesson she had to teach in Sunday School the next day. Guess what the topic was about? WORK! It was a good lesson for me to discuss with her. The Lord has commanded us to work and to teach our children to work. Why? Because it is an eternal principle. God worked 6 days and rested on the 7th. Idleness is not Godliness.
We are to teach our children to work.
I used to think my husband was lazy because he made our boys do everything. They had to help him fix this and do that. Now years later each of our boys have thanked their Dad for teaching them how to work. They are grateful they know how to do plumbing and car repairs and home maintenance.
I apologized to my daughter for not teaching her to be cheerful while working. I said I was always mad when the house was a mess and mad while trying to get everyone to start cleaning. She replied, “No sir. You always had music playing and you hid candy under the things we needed to pick up. We had fun!”
Oh. I guess I did do that sometimes.
And maybe I did a better job hiding my anger than I thought I did.
So I’m turning over a new leaf. I won’t be mad because I have to work. I’ll be grateful I can keep the commandment to work. And instead of hiding candy for me to find (though yes, I do eat chocolate before I clean the bathroom), I’ll listen to a podcast and take my mind off my drudgery.
“Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go….”
So very true! You and Dad are/were such great examples of hard work.
ReplyDeleteI love to work. I love to make my kids work! I love to hear them whine when I tell them to do hard things, because I know it will make them better in the end.
As pictured above, Tac is the hardest worker of us all. He is always the first one to ask if he can help. A while back I offered him the choice to go play with siblings or help me in the garden. He was so excited to help work in the garden!