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Well-regulated Work Aids All-around Development, August 8
For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears
herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed,
whose end is to be burned.
Hebrews 6:7, 8
, NKJV.
The youth need to be taught that life means earnest work, responsibility, care-
taking. They need a training that will make them practical—men and women who
can cope with emergencies. They should be taught that the discipline of systematic,
well-regulated labor is essential, not only as a safeguard against the vicissitudes of
life, but as an aid to all-around development.
Notwithstanding all that has been said and written concerning the dignity of
labor, the feeling prevails that it is degrading. Young men are anxious to become
teachers, clerks, merchants, physicians, lawyers, or to occupy some other position
that does not require physical toil. Young women shun housework and seek an
education in other lines. These need to learn that no man or woman is degraded
by honest toil. That which degrades is idleness and selfish dependence. Idleness
fosters self-indulgence, and the result is a life empty and barren—a field inviting
the growth of every evil....
Since both men and women have a part in homemaking, boys as well as girls
should gain a knowledge of household duties.... Let the children and youth learn
from the Bible how God has honored the work of the everyday toiler.
Let them read of “the sons of the prophets” (
2 Kings 6:1-7
), students at school,
who were building a house for themselves, and for whom a miracle was wrought to
save from loss the ax that was borrowed. Let them read of Jesus the carpenter, and
Paul the tentmaker, who with the toil of the craftsman linked the highest ministry,
human and divine. Let them read of the lad whose five loaves were used by the
Savior in that wonderful miracle for the feeding of the multitude; of Dorcas the
seamstress, called back from death, that she might continue to make garments for
the poor; of the wise woman described in the Proverbs, who “seeketh wool, and
flax, and worketh willingly with her hands”; who “looketh well to the ways of her
household, and eateth not the bread of idleness” (
Proverbs 31:13, 27
).—
Education,
215-217
.
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