Does this sound like a familiar scenario? You ask your child to do something. The child does a
terrible job doing the task. You get frustrated and do it yourself. What did you just teach that child?
It is so much easier to do it yourself – right now. But, a lazy, inept, or entitled, or just clueless kid is
much more difficult to deal with in the long run. A kid who can do for herself is a confident kid!
Here is another scenario – you give your child a task. It never gets done. So you do it yourself. What did you teach that kid? When will that ever be acceptable in your child’s future employment situation or in their marriage – or their own parenting?
Another scenario – You give your child a task. They eventually get it done. But they complain,
whine, and grump the whole time. To avoid that stress in the future, you just do it yourself. What
have you taught that kid? Who will ever want to be married to that person when grown?
The tough thing is, writing down these scenarios, I wish I could say I never did any of that, but
we all do it sometimes. Here is the last scenario I will torture you with. And this is the one that hit
home the most for me. You assign your child a task. They tell you its done. You assume the best and
don’t check. You end up very disappointed in the quality of the work. What have I trained them to
do? Yes, I missed a chance to teach integrity.
I am a steward of my children. I have been loaned my kids by God, to raise for His glory. As I am not my own, I have been bought with a price, so my children are not really “my children” but His, on loan. That’s what I mean when I say we are stewards of our kids. And the Bible says that: Stewards are required to be found faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2.
At the heart of everything we do that can be considered work, is the work of Restoration (Jennifer Pepito). Order to chaos = beauty. This is what Genesis 1 said God did at creation. The earth was chaos and he called it to order by the power of His Word. Bringing order to chaos is creating beauty. Random paint splotches arranged in an order become beauty. Random colorful patches arranged in order become an heirloom quilt, random ingredients from the dirt, cooked together artfully, become a delicious, nourishing meal. Arranging a careful family schedule is a thing of beauty, too. Arranging the chaos of the day into a meaningful family life is one of the most beautiful things we ever get to see!
When we understand God has ordained work for us, that we are sub-creators, imitating Him, that He specializes in bringing order to chaos and it pleases Him and us to do likewise, then we can begin to appreciate the work God has given us for just a job well done, not just for praise of compensation. This is how we want our children to understand work.
Make Colossians 3: 23 a prayer with and for your children: Father, our work today is to clean the house. Help us to do it with all of our hearts, because God is our supervisor!
Whatever you do, work heartily,
as for the Lord and not for men,
knowing that from the Lord you will
receive the inheritance as your reward.
You are serving the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3:23-24
