Work Is NOT a “Four-Letter Word”

written by Brad Boruff on the topic of Miscellaneous, Personal Development on November, 2011

I know that there are four letters in the word work. But it seems today that many people have the idea that work is a bad word. The Bible has a lot to say about work. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” This principle rests squarely in Scripture. Most of us would agree that people need to work, but a truth that seems to have been lost somewhere is that,

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
– Lamentations 3:27

Most young people these days aren’t learning to work.

All of us are influenced by our surroundings and we tend to measure “normal” against the backdrop of our own experiences (even if they are unique in some way or even a little strange). The folks from the country tend to cast a wary eye at the “city slickers” and the folks who live in town have to chuckle at those “hillbillies” out “in the sticks.” So, I know I’m going to lose all of you folks who frequent the Starbucks on the corner for a moment here, but if you stick with me, we’ll come back out of the fog shortly.

Both of my parents grew up on farms, and I visited those farms regularly as a boy when we went to see my grandparents. On the farm there were lots of chores; feed the chickens, gather the eggs, milk the cows, haul hay bales, etc. My folks both learned to work on the farm and I got a taste of that life as well.

My dad started a church in a small country town when I was five years old. He did carpentry work on the side to help provide for the family, and as I got older, I had the privilege to go along and work with my dad. He taught me that it was fun to work. Every task became a challenge—a game of sorts. It had to be done efficiently, safely, and with a satisfactory result. If we were shoveling gravel into a trailer to haul to a job, we would see who could shovel the fastest. Each shovel had to be full and it had to all wind up in the trailer in order to count. If we were driving nails, the contest was to see if I could keep up with my dad, nail for nail, without damaging the surface of the wood, bending the nail, or hitting the wrong nail (ouch!). I know that doesn’t sound like nearly as much fun as playing Mario Kart on the Wii, but the way my dad engaged me in the process, it really was fun.

As I grew older, I was given more work to do. I learned how to operate machinery, acquired new skills, and assumed more responsibility. All of this was good for me. The work I was given prepared me for college, for adulthood, for life in general. These life lessons were so good for me that I wanted the same for my children. However, every place that my wife and I have lived has been in “the big city” compared to where I grew up. I feared for our three boys. I doubted that they would have the opportunity to learn to work in a city environment. Please pardon my ignorance, but I thought that real work only existed “out on the farm.” (Okay, city folks. The next paragraph is where we all come back out of the fog!)

While raising our three boys in a city with paved streets and concrete sidewalks, my wife and I were constantly looking for ways to teach them to work. We taught them to pick up the toys, clean their room, sweep the floor, take out the trash, etc. It quickly became obvious that it was not for our benefit that we were teaching them to work, it was for their benefit. We could have easily picked up the toys faster than they could do it, but that would not have helped them. They were the ones who needed to learn to work.

As they got older, I continued to worry that the only thing they would be able to accomplish in life was to get the highest score on Roller Coaster Tycoon and Age of Empires. I began to teach our oldest son, Kevin, how to mow the lawn and wash the car. It took longer to get the job done when he was helping me, but at least it was some form of manual labor that he could learn to do and we enjoyed working together.

One day after my son had finished mowing our lawn (under my watchful eye), our neighbor at the time approached me and asked if I would allow Kevin to mow his lawn. I wondered silently whether he was ready to branch out yet, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity for him to learn to work. Now he had two lawns to mow! Soon he had other customers and his business kept him busy for several hours a week. In time, our two younger sons, Kyle and Eric, followed Kevin’s lead. They have learned to work, and I have learned that there is work to be done everywhere, country and city. I’m glad that they have been able to earn some money to pay for summer camp, Youth Conference, youth activities, and even save up for a car and for college. But the thing I am happiest about is that they had the opportunity to learn to work.

What’s the big deal with a story like that? There seems to be a trend in families where the children do not learn to work. They are not encouraged to learn to “bear the yoke” in their youth. In many families, children do not know how to wash clothes, iron, or do chores around the house. It seems that the philosophy is that children must play all the time and be allowed to do whatever they want during all of their waking hours. “Let them play now, there will be plenty of time for work later.” True, there will be plenty of time for work later. However, the problem with this approach is that when “later” gets here, they will not be inclined to work, they will not understand the value of work, they will not see the need to work, and they will not know how to work. They will expect a handout; they will expect someone else to do the work so they won’t have to invest the effort.

Bearing the yoke in our youth is good for us. We emphasize sports so much because of the important life lessons that can be learned from participating in organized sports. I do believe that sports have value and I agree that young people can learn a lot through participation in sports. One of the lessons that we can learn is that there is a reward for hard work. Winning, playing time, recognition and admiration among your peers; these are all benefits of hard work on the practice field. However, I think the point being missed in much of our society today is that there are also a lot of life lessons that can be learned by actually working. There are rewards for working hard at work. People who understand this know that work is not a bad thing, but a good thing. They know that work is not a “four-letter word.”