"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of ... work."
Work and joy? How can that be? Today we view work as something to get done so that we can go and do something fun or more enjoyable. Kathleen Bahr and colleagues said, "A common notion in Western culture, ...is that an ideal life is work-free." She then goes on to recount how Adam and Eve received commandments to go and "till the soil and bear and care for children. ... [and yet] we prefer life's bounties at minimal cost, without the so-called interruptions of children [and work]. In other words, we long for the life Adam and Eve left behind in the Garden of Eden" (Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamation Principles and Research Perspectives, p. 214).
It is hard to want to work "by the sweat of [our] face[s]" (Genesis 3:19). I know that I have memories of complaining about going out in the yard and having to weed the garden. Getting hot, sweaty, dusty, and dirty felt so uncomfortable. I still struggle with wanting to go out and do the yard work. Yet I have also come to love yard work as well. When I step back and see what I have done in my yard to take care of my plants I feel a deep satisfaction. It is a feeling of accomplishment and awe in how I have been able to create something beautiful.
Gardening isn't the only kind of work. There are different kinds of work that are involved in caring for our home and family. Clark goes to work to help provide for our family. I work in caring for our children and home. Together our family works to take care of the many tasks that keep our home clean and cared for. (At least we try to have the children help.)
It is often difficult to help the whole family be involved in working on taking care of a home. Kathleen Bahr et al. even says that the whole family is vital to the work done in the home. She then says, "To insist that children help when they would rather do their own thing does not damage self-esteem; it aids the discovery of true worth. Such insistence says, 'I need you. You are an essential member of our family. We cannot get along without you or your help'" (p. 221).
Working together can be difficult, and I am sure we will and do hear a lot of complaints, but over the course of life as we keep striving to work together as a family, we will build unity and love. When I was a newly wed, Clark and I were able to work side-by-side in helping to work on repairing a home. As I look back on that hard work, I don't remember the sweat or weariness; I remember feeling so happy to be working together. It was such a fun memory even though it was hard. Taking care of our home everyday can be that way too. Even though it is hard, hopefully we will look back and remember how fun it was to do it together.
 |
| Working Together |
I gathered as many pictures as I could find of our family working together and something magical happened. I have to admit that I have been having a pretty hard morning, just feeling down. Yet as I went through years of pictures we have stored digitally, and seeing the fun times we have had working together; I found myself not feeling quite so bad. As we work together, we can look back and see how that work has changed us. We can see how far we have come and how much we have learned. I know this helps me, and I am sure it will help my children learn many different kinds of skills. Work does bring joy because it helps us strive to become something more than we are. Through work we will discover our talents, abilities, and worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment