Saturday, June 3, 2017

Sacred Work

I think that it is good to do household chores, to give children some housekeeping things to do.  Why?  We need to see that work can be holy, especially when it is fulfilling.  What is so fulfilling about making your bed, cleaning your bathroom, and taking out the garbage?  Well, when you are done you can have the sense of accomplishment.  You completed something.  It can enhance self-worth.  That is what work is supposed to do.  When it is slavishly working out of fear of starvation, it won't seem so holy or fulfilling.  Lots of parents blow off making their kids work around the house, but rather take the children to sports and dance, music, singing lessons.  Most of this is called "play."  You play sports.  You play an instrument.  What if you realize or the coach judges you are not very good.  In soccer, you get sat down, or don't feel a sense of accomplishing much of anything.  When you make your bed it is done.  Work at its best is holy because it is accomplishing something.  It is not just showing up and running around.  Kids generally figure out early on that they are not good at something. By the time sports and cultural efforts become work, someone ought to be paying you something or at least that is your purpose for doing it.  And if you are not very talented, but live in the world of delusion that you are talented, this will prove to be very sad someday, and you still won't have a good sense of self.  So make your bed.  Then go practice.

1 comment:

  1. It teaches a child how a family works and what they do is important.

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