GOD COMMANDS US TO WORK BECAUSE HE VALUES WORK.
Bible Reading of the Day: Read 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12.
Verse of the Day: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” (Colossians 3:23, NIV).
Mandy raced to meet her brother at the door. Chris was a lot older than she was; he was in high school and was old enough to drive a car.
“Look, Chris!” she said, waving a page of the neighborhood newspaper in his face. “Look what I got!”
Chris closed the door behind him and took the paper from Mandy’s shaking hand. He glanced at the headline, then looked back at his sister.
“Right here,” she said, realizing that her brother had not seen her picture at the bottom of the front page. She poked her finger at the paper.
He finally located her photograph under the headline “Carrier of the Year.”
“Wow,” he said. “That’s terrific, Sis.” He read the short paragraph beneath her picture, describing why Mandy had been selected as their Carrier of the Year.
“It says here you’re one of the hardest-working kids ever to deliver The Sentinel,” Chris said, smiling. ‘”A valuable part of The Sentinel team,’ it says. That’s terrific, Sis,” he repeated.
“I get a twenty-dollar gift certificate to Mama Mia’s,” she said, referring to a popular restaurant in their town.
Dad walked up and draped an arm on Mandy’s shoulders. “I think she deserves it,” Dad said. “She’s worked hard.”
“I sure have,” Mandy said, beaming with happiness. “Sometimes my hands get really sore from folding and wrapping all those papers. And my legs used to get sore from riding my bike to deliver them!”
“But I’m really glad you do it,” Dad said. “And I think God is too.”
“He is?” Mandy said. “Why?”
“Well,” Dad said, “because God values hard work as much as we do . . . more, I guess. That’s why he commands us to ‘work with our hands’ and not to be lazy.” Dad smiled. “So, Mandy,” he said, “are you taking anybody with you to Mama Mia’s?”
“I want to take you and Mom and Chris,” she said. “I think that would cost more than twenty dollars,” Dad warned.
“That’s OK,” Mandy said. “I’ve got some money saved up to pay for the rest.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Dad said. “Why don’t I pay for the rest? We’ll call it our ‘hard worker of the year’ award.”
“All right!” Mandy said.
TO DISCUSS: If your family had a “hard worker of the year” award, who do you think would receive the honor? Why? Why does God command us to work?
TO PRAY: “Lord, teach us to value work as you do.”
