Work for Little Hands and Big Hands
After Ray’s recent surgery, our daughter asked if we would like for her 11-year-old son to spend the night with us one night to help out. I answered with a hearty, “Yes!” This guy looks for ways to be helpful and he was a great help to his Notty and Little. He washed dishes, loaded the dishwasher, helped me straighten the big closet we call the toy room, and helped me make a big batch of granola. In between we watched two movies and a 60s sitcom with his recovering Notty. While Ray rested, our grandson and I painted together. I got farther on my current project, and he finished an 11″ by 14″ canvas to take home. He is quite the artist, and we enjoy sharing our painting hobby.
My parents snapped this picture of me helping out at our kitchen sink when I was five years old—not because I was particularly helpful. It was more likely because it was a rare event. I confess that Mother used to say that I liked to wash dishes until I learned how to do it.
Surprisingly though, as an adult, washing dishes has been one of my favorite household tasks. Work is one of the gifts that God gave to the first man. Genesis 2:15 says that God put man in the Garden of Eden and told him to tend it. Your homeschooling tasks are many. One of those tasks is to teach your children the necessity and the joy of work. Since your children see how you spend your day, they have a full-time example of someone who works very hard — when she feels like it and when she doesn’t.
I believe in children having lots of time to play, but they also have to learn that work is necessary for living in a family, living life as an adult, and living in society. Teaching children to work isn’t easy. It’s one of those tasks that takes love, gentleness, kindness, and diligence. Proverbs gives lessons on how to work, lessons you can pass down to your children, such as these:
Laziness and poverty go hand in hand, as do diligence and wealth.
Poor is one who works with a lazy hand,
But the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Proverbs 10:4
Work involves staying on task while completing the practical work at hand, rather than leaving that work undone while following idle dreams.
One who works his land will have plenty of bread,
But one who pursues worthless things lacks sense.
Proverbs 12:11
Necessity helps us do the work we need to do.
A worker’s appetite works for him,
For his hunger urges him on.
Proverbs 16:26
Performing work well requires skill. Skill is the result of diligence and a willingness to be taught. Living in a house that is over 175 years old has taught Ray and me to appreciate skilled workers even more than we ever did before. We appreciate the carpenters, plumbers, house painters, electricians, water filter technicians, septic tank pumpers, and mowers who helps us keep it going. When you need someone skilled in his work, well . . . you need someone skilled in his work.
Do you see a person skilled in his work?
He will stand before kings;
He will not stand before obscure people.
Proverbs 22:29