The beginning of the year is filled with resolutions and new ideas and entire lists of wishes.
It is also filled with work. Cleaning up after Christmas decorating and parties. Decluttering. Maybe scrubbing germs away from a sickness. Work fills our lives, not only in January but throughout the year.
It can be easy to just plow through the work; much of it is necessary. Cleaning, laundry, cooking, learning. All these things are needed but that doesn’t mean that it’s always fun or easy.
One of the conversations I have with my kids is in the realm of their schoolwork. They wonder why it’s important, why it matters, why they can’t just do it fast and be done. I have one child who would be willing to do a year’s worth of science assignments in a week and be done with science for the year. But that’s not helpful. Often work is slow, takes perseverance, needs focus and continual effort.
Many people in today’s society believe that work is bad; some Christians might even consider it part of the fall. However, in Gen. 2:15, we see that the LORD gave Adam the responsibility to keep and cultivate the garden before sin entered the world. We also see Adam naming all the animals in verses 19-20 {which seems like a huge job to me!}.
So if work isn’t inherently sinful, how should we approach it? Well, again, the Bible gives us a guideline. The book of Proverbs alone has almost a dozen references to work. Here are a few —
Our work will return to us {12:14}
Work leads to profit {14:23}
Being lazy will have consequences {18:9}
Our work will be noticed {22:29}
The New Testament mentions the heart motive behind our work: Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. {I Cor. 10:31} This verse doesn’t put stipulations on what type of work is valuable but rather EVERYTHING we do should be for God’s glory. Meaning putting forth our best effort because God is the one who gives us the ability for it all.
I don’t believe we can effectively glorify or accurately represent God when we do things grumbling, upset, or half hearted. Yes, the work might be hard but hard doesn’t equal sinful, bad, or wrong. Hard exists because of the curse of sin {Gen. 3:17-19} but it doesn’t mean hard things are bad. I appreciate the wisdom of Abbie Halberstadt, a homeschooling, podcasting mom and author, who wrote a book titled, “Hard is Not the Same Thing as Bad” {I encourage you to read it}.
We have this mindset that difficulties should be avoided. Work that is too hard, too strenuous, too time consuming isn’t worth doing at all or can be done begrudgingly because it’s bad. That’s not the truth from the Bible. We can learn valuable lessons from doing hard things. We can discover that we actually enjoy the challenge in some tasks.
I remind my kids — and myself — that trying new things is hard but it is necessary. We shouldn’t complain or give up when we attempt work that is hard and we don’t immediately succeed. That’s part of the learning and growing process! Despite what you might have heard, nothing is easy for anyone the first time. Musicians, craftsmen, athletes, teachers, everyone has to work to improve to the point they are at. They might naturally have good hand/eye coordination but they have to practice to gain the accuracy to make the shot. They might have good pitch naturally but they have to learn to read music and play with musicality.
It’s all work. Plain, honest hard work. And it’s worth doing because we can glorify our Creator through our efforts and attitude.
Photo by Raphael Rychetsky on Unsplash