Day 28: Teach your Kids the Value of Hard Work
From the time they are little, kids should have appropriate chores around the house, with whatever kind of compensation seems good to you. (Incidently, a small allowance can teach great lessons about money management and savings.) This kind of work is rewarding in and of itself, as we learn to value the satisfaction of a job well done and a clean, neat house. This of course means we ought to value hard work ourselves!
On a spiritual level, learning to value wholesome work is very important. The Bible warns many times in Proverbs about the dangers of laziness, and as they say, idle hands are the devil´s workshop. A person who is lazy in life will most likely be lazy in spiritual disciplines as well, and that is extremely damaging to a person. Take it from someone who has had to overcome these bad habits of laziness herself! Shocking, I know!
I read in a great book what one mom did in regards to encouraging good work habits and I loved it. TV is probably one of the biggest time-stealers and promoters of laziness that we all have in our homes. Instead of limiting TV time and using it as a reward (reinforcing the idea that TV is great while work is no fun), this author only let her daughters watch TV while they were doing something else. For example, they could sit down to knit or fold laundry, and then when their hands found nothing left to do, the TV went off and they had to go find a new activity. The result, she says, is that her children now value the TV very little, and would much rather be productive. Work is more rewarding than a day spent watching TV.
Think about your child´s average day. Is there a lot of dead time in front of the TV or video games? Is there a lot of sleeping in? Maybe it´s time to make some changes and promote wholesome work at home, to help our children grow and become prepared for the life they will have when they set off to be adults!
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