Work and Play

Last night as Patrick and I were checking out at the grocery store we chatted with the young checkout boy. He complained that he was working on a Saturday. He felt he should be paid over time to work on a Saturday.

I just listened and smiled.

My husband said, "Most days, I'm just glad to have a job."

Wasn't that just the perfect thing to say to this kid?

Is work a necessary evil, even a curse? A Christian who spent many years in Soviet work camps, learning to know work at its most brutal, its most degrading and dehumanizing, testified that he took pride in it, did the best he could, worked to the limit of his strength each day. Why? Because he saw it as a gift from God, coming to him from the hand of God, the very will of God for him. He remembered that Jesus did not make benches and roofbeams and plow handles by means of miracles, but by means of saw, axe, and adze.

Wouldn't it make an astounding difference, not only in the quality of the work we do (in office, schoolroom, factory, kitchen or backyard), but also in our satisfaction, even our joy, if we recognized God's gracious gift in every single task, from making a bed or bathing a baby, to drawing a blueprint or selling a computer? If our children saw us doing "as heartily as unto the Lord" all the work we do, they would learn true happiness. Instead of feeling that they must be allowed to do what they like, they would learn to like what they do.

St. Ignatius Loyola prayed, "Teach us, Good Lord, to labor and to ask for no reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will."

-taken from Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot (bold emphasis mine)

And for those who are following Missouri High School baseball :o)

Congratulations to The Hickman High Kewpies...STATE CHAMPS!

Good work guys!


Encourage one another,
Donna