Why Labor?

Labor, as in work, is not a hot com­mod­i­ty. It’s easy to find work, as in work to be done, but it’s hard to find good work­ers to com­plete it. So why do we both­er? When every­one else seems to be on end­less sum­mer break or week­ends full of video games, why should we labor?

If you have been in the chris­t­ian cul­ture for any length of time, I’m sure your brain went instant­ly to one of two places: 

1. God cre­at­ed Adam and Eve and gave them work to com­plete. Work is there­fore sanc­tioned by God for man. There­fore, we are to do our work well. 
2. Peter tells us that “he who does not work, does not eat”, there­by con­nect­ing our work with our need for food.

These are great exam­ples as to why we should work, but what about our chil­dren? Are they, as imma­ture beings, capa­ble of fulling under­stand­ing the God-giv­en man­date and spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion to work? 

“A  job well done is reward in itself”

Is it? As chil­dren are con­crete, spon­ta­neous, and phys­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed, they may strug­gle to con­nect a job well done with good work. There are many of us who, when think­ing about the throne room in heav­en, desire more than any­thing to hear those words “Well done, good and faith­ful ser­vant.” But a life­time of work is a long time to wait for an atta boy, and most chil­dren lack the capac­i­ty to do so. 

If their reward comes in 80 years, why both­er work­ing dili­gent­ly today?

Instead of try­ing to force our chil­dren to mature instant­ly, let’s help our chil­dren under­stand the con­nec­tion between work and reward. Let’s mod­el for them strong work habits and great rewards. Let’s sur­prise them with rewards for going the extra distance. 

Let’s help them see that work has a car­nal reward attached to it, and when they find them­selves work­ing for the sake of work, they will dis­cov­er the spir­i­tu­al rewards as well.