Whatever it is you do to make a living — be grateful. Your work is a gift. You are blessed!

ROBERT CLEMENTS

“Apply yourself..” Lee Iacocca

As fathers struggle to make ends meet and mothers to bring up their families, you hear them dreaming of the day they’ll have nothing to do.

“Ah!” she says, “I long for the day when I can put my feet up…”

“And not put them down again!” completes the husband with a sigh.

Work does have a bad name in our world. But let me tell you there is something worse than work, and that’s boredom. At least that’s what Drs. Kathryn Rost and G. Richard Smith of the University of Arkansas have to say.

After analyzing the mental health of heart attack survivors, they concluded that one factor which greatly reduced the chances of depression was going back to work.

And why not? At work we are often around friends, and people with strong relationships will almost always fare better mentally. But we humans also need to be useful and productive!

Arthur Kroeger wrote in ‘Quote’ magazine (August 1994) that his brother sometimes visited an Anabaptist colony in southern Alberta, Canada. During one visit he asked leaders how they dealt with the problem of misbehavior — when people rebelled against the colony’s strict rules.

He was told that these people were first asked to correct their behavior. If they did not respond, they would be given a stern “talking to.”

“But what do you do when all else fails, when somebody stubbornly refuses to behave?” he pressed.

“Ah,” came the reply, “if it comes to that, then we don’t give him anything to do!”

The ultimate punishment — don’t give them any work! If that doesn’t sound so bad, just ask those who are unemployed how they feel about not working….

It has been wisely said, “The Lord didn’t burden us with work, but rather blessed us with it.” We need to be busy and productive.

Whatever it is you do to make a living — be grateful. Those long hours and that feeling of exhaustion at the end of the day come from having something useful to do.

Your work is a gift. You are blessed.

The old retired housewife now lay on her side

Turned to look at her husband with eyes open wide

‘You remember dear, when each morning you left

We spent all our hours working and hardly slept?

D’you remember toiling with sweat on your head

Then weary, exhausted going straight down to bed?

‘Yes dear,” said the husband with eyes open wide

As he looked at his wife lying bored by his side

I worked and you did from morning till night

And there was no time to quarrel and fight

But today I look and see days ahead

With nothing to do but stay on in bed

‘I wish’ said the husband and the wife nodded too,

‘T’was like before, and we both had something to do!’