Work.

Hard to believe … how can it be?!… but it is July already. Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends. We are celebrating by staying home and having a regular day. How about you?

Our mornings around here are so noisy – is your home noisy in the morning, too? We have a friend coming to stay with us in July and I wonder how she’ll ever make it through the morning chaos.
Lavender, after having her breakfast because that is definitely first on her list to do, scoots about with the help of a handy chair. Devotions are read. Piano is practiced. Dishes are washed. Floors swept and chores are started. Everyone is talking about the day, the night, the dreams they had, who sat on whose chair for breakfast and so forth. It’s noisy, it really is.

 

 

 

I guess that is all part of a having a large family – because, I suppose that is what we are now – a large family. Funny how that just happened …

 

The girls and I spent the morning weeding a majority of our flower gardens yesterday. We have been having large amounts of rain so everything has just grown … well, like a weed. We try to weed once a week or more, but with the rain, it had been about a week and half and boy, those weeds were huge. While we were weeding, getting our fingers dirty, discovering bugs under rocks and roots that must be part of the carrot family, I was thinking about work – and hard work. Weeding is not something children love – but the girls have come to realize it just has to be done. Like putting away laundry every night and cleaning the chicken coop. My parents were great teachers when it came to work ethics – we all had chores and lots of them (or so it felt like that to me when I was younger). I honestly believe the majority of children in today’s society do not have enough chores.

Working together and taking care of your home and property is, although frustrating and exhausting at times, very rewarding.

I know of a family who has hired a gardener to weed their gardens – they have children the same ages as mine … as we were tugging at our big, nasty weeds yesterday, I couldn’t help but wonder if this family was robbing their children (and parents) of a very important life skill – learning to work together. Also, could it not possibly save money by having the children and mom and dad outside together, pulling weeds on a weekly basis. Or, if that seemed like too big of a task, could they ‘pay’ their older children to weed instead of paying an outsider? Often times, we have hire cleaners, gardeners, buy easy-to-make meals, have everything done and ready for our lifestyles and homes … so we can rush home, eat, and then turn around and drive our older children to town to their summer job … or take our younger children to summer camps and vbs  because they are “bored” and need something to do. I wonder, if instead, we should work to build a family economy at home that keeps everyone busy, helps provide a small income (if possible) and gives the children a fantastic work ethic and experience. Not to mention, spending time together builds precious memories.

We went strawberry picking last week. The girls helped and it did not take long to have all the strawberries we needed for canning. But while we were picking, we could hear other children grumbling and complaining while picking strawberries in a field with their families. “It’s too hot, it’s soooo hard, I’m bored …” Do you think, perhaps, these children are not doing chores at home, or maybe this is the first or only time they are experiencing “hard work”? And halfway across the field, you can see a Mennonite family, all the moms and daughters, quietly picking a truckload (literally) of strawberries together. I heard no complaints from their row. I only heard some laughter and quiet singing.

 

 

How can we expect our children to grow up and have a solid work ethic if they are not being taught the basics of work at home? What if they want to go on the mission field, only to discover it’s incredibly hot and uncomfortable, they need to dig a 40 foot ditch with only a shovel and … surprise, surprise … they just cannot handle it because they were not challenged enough to truly work their whole life?

 

 

Work also gives  children a sense of worth. It’s encouraging to a little one to know they can help out and make a difference. Don’t rob your child by pampering them so much that they do not learn the value of true, hard work. The next generation is already pampered so much.

If we’re not working together and raising our children to work, we are doing the next generation a terrible injustice.

 

P.S. Have you heard of Ants’hillvania? It is a great story for children to learn about how great work actually is for you! I listened to it when I was a young girl and now my girls are listening to it. Great Biblical story with fun songs about the ant and their work ethic.