God Works (Part Four)

“But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’” (John 5:17)

One of the huge breakdowns in our culture, in our understanding of work and in our simple accomplishment of it, is in our lack of teaching and requiring work of our little ones. So much of what our children learn is in the home, and oftentimes work is either not required of them or it is distorted for them.

For example, sometimes all children see of their fathers is that they “go off” to work and return home to rest. And we all think of this as “fair” and sort of “the way it should be.” But one of the bad things about this (and there are other bad things about it) is that the children never really see Dad working. Or if they do, it is minimal: mowing the grass once a week or changing the oil occasionally or something of that sort. And that is certainly good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Children need to see their fathers as workers, like God is a worker. They may know you go away to work, but such work is where they can’t see you and learn from you. Children need to learn how to work from the example of their parents, and especially from their dads. I am not suggesting Dad ought to come home and work at night to the exclusion of spending time with the family, but rather I am talking about Dad working with Mom and the children to do the stuff that needs doing around the house: fixing meals, cleaning up, fixing problems, vacuuming, yard work, family projects—the home should be a place of activity and not simply “playful” activity. If all the children know of their interaction with Dad is “play” or, far worse, watching TV, they are not learning one of life’s most valuable lessons from him: that true leaders are not those who simply point the finger and have others work for them but are rather the hardest workers of all, servants to their wives, to their families, to their communities, to God.

It is, of course, extremely important for children to see their moms working hard as well, and this is, unfortunately, sometimes just as much a problem. A lot of moms work outside the home these days, and the home becomes for them as well more of a haven of rest than a place of activity. But more often than not, even in a day of men and women both working outside the home, it is still more likely the woman does more of the daily chores around the house than the man, or if she doesn’t, she certainly gets the blame for it. Along with the children, wives need to see their husbands working and husbands their wives. It is good for the marriage as well as for the kids.

So children need to see their parents working. But they also need to be required to work themselves. Parents who do everything for their children may think they are serving their children well, but in reality the best service you can do for your children is to teach them how to care for themselves, care for the world God has put them in, and care for others. When parents do everything for their children, they are doing them a great disservice. Teach your children, from an early age, to pitch in and do their share—to work. Don’t require of them more than they can handle, but they can usually handle a lot more than you think. Little children can learn to fold towels and washcloths, pick up their toys, help in the yard, take off their dishes after meals, straighten their beds in the morning, even help collect the trash. Train up a child to be like God-who-works when he is little, and he stands a much better chance of being a godly worker when he is old.

“God grant us to be like You, dear heavenly Father, and make us good examples as fathers and mothers to our own children in the way that we work and train them to work. Make them good workers as well, dear God, that they might reflect Your glory as they fulfill the joyful purpose for which You created them. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.”