Page 240 - To Be Like Jesus (2004)

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Cooperating With God in Work Promotes Happiness, August 7
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being
persecuted, we endure.
1 Corinthians 4:12
, NKJV.
At the creation, labor was appointed as a blessing. It meant development, power,
happiness. The changed condition of the earth through the curse of sin has brought a
change in the conditions of labor; yet though now attended with anxiety, weariness,
and pain, it is still a source of happiness and development. And it is a safeguard
against temptation. Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence, and promotes
industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God’s great plan for our
recovery from the Fall.
The youth [and others] should be led to see the true dignity of labor. Show them
that God is a constant worker. All things in nature do their allotted work. Action
pervades the whole creation, and in order to fulfill our mission we, too, must be
active.
In our labor we are to be workers together with God. He gives us the earth and
its treasures; but we must adapt them to our use and comfort. He causes the trees to
grow; but we prepare the timber and build the house. He has hidden in the earth
the gold and silver, the iron and coal; but it is only through toil that we can obtain
them....
While God has created and constantly controls all things, He has endowed us
with a power not wholly unlike His. To us has been given a degree of control over
the forces of nature. As God called forth the earth in its beauty out of chaos, so we
can bring order and beauty out of confusion. And though all things are now marred
with evil, yet in our completed work we feel a joy akin to His when, looking on the
fair earth, He pronounced it “very good.”
As a rule, the exercise most beneficial to the youth will be found in useful
employment. The little children find both diversion and development in play; and
their sports should be such as to promote not only physical, but mental and spiritual
growth. As they gain strength and intelligence, the best recreation will be found
in some line of effort that is useful. That which trains the hand to helpfulness,
and teaches the young to bear their share of life’s burdens, is most effective in
promoting the growth of mind and character.—
Education, 214, 215
.
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