When children are babies, their parents are their servants, even slaves, because they are so helpless. Teenagers kind of want it to stay that way—they easily grow fond of someone else washing dishes, clothes, and cars. Teaching my own children to work willingly has proven to be one of the hardest aspects of my parenting (and it brings back faint memories of my own resistance to my father). I didn’t really want to work, and as teenagers my kids didn’t either.
Teaching your children how to work, and how to love working, is harder than it looks. I think Satan himself wears a feed cap that says, “Take this job and shove it.” Let us pray for God’s help and strength and guidance so that this generation of adults does not fail to pass on God’s mind-set to the next. “Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death” (Proverbs 19:18).
Hey, kid—take this job and love it.
