Just a Few More

The Lord is a loving Father who gently adjusts my attitude and helps me see things from His perspective.  I'm thankful for this kind and loving approach.  He reveals that the world's perspective is totally opposite of how He wants me to look at things.  

~ I can be thankful for work, because work keeps poverty away.  (Proverbs 24:30-34)

As stay-at-home moms, the work we do keeps poverty away in different ways. Thrifting.  Garage-saling. Cooking at home.  Cutting hair at home.  Growing food.  Meal planning.  Sure, my work looks different than my husband's work and the work of others, but it's important that I know that I'm doing the work God has for me.  It's important to be thankful for my work and my part in keeping poverty away.  

 ~ I can be thankful for work because we are supposed to be the opposite of slothful in our work.  (Proverbs 18:9)

Being slothful is in the same arena as being destructive, but being excellent in our work is like building a masterpiece!  The work God has given me is my opportunity to be excellent instead of slothful!  

~ If we are skillful in our work, we will receive honor.  (Proverbs 22:29)

It isn't always immediate, but eventually, we receive honor.  I believe there is honor here for those who are skillful in their work.  There is also honor in eternity for those who are skillful in their work.  When I look at the work of wife and motherhood, it takes work to grow and be skillful in my work and that's an ongoing process.  The Lord is developing me as I work and as I become more skillful, He also honors me.  It's a beautiful journey of becoming more and more useful to Him.  He's teaching me to be thankful for the work.  He's also teaching me to work at being more skillful in my work. 

It's interesting to me that in the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve a job to do in tending the Garden of Eden.  (Genesis 2:15) The work was not the curse.  It wasn't until after they sinned and ate the forbidden fruit, that toil ~ work being hard and difficult ~ came about.  Work is not a result of the curse.  The toil, the hard part, the "grunt," that's a result of Eve and Adam's choice to disobey God.  When I think about that, it seems important.  We have jobs or tasks that God has given us.  That's all part of His good plan for our lives.  The toil, however, is now a part of life in a fallen world.  It's something that won't be fixed until all is made right again.

I hope you have some food for thought in the days ahead.  Perhaps some gratitude for the work God has given you will grow in your heart, as it is in mine.