Saturday, January 17, 2009

"Work done well, work done poorly, and work not done at all"

I just started a new book from a new favorite author of mine, Levi's Will by W. Dale Cramer. It is a novel about an Amish boy that leaves home as a teenager...that's all I know so far as I'm nowhere near done and have no idea where the story will lead me (haven't even read the synopsis on the back yet).
In beginning his nomadic trek through the states working wherever he found a job, the main character, Will, gave a beautiful description of the type of work ethics I would love to instill in Caleb as he grows.
"Work was work and a roof was a roof, even if it was just a harness room with cots. There was nothing he could not, or would not, do. He had never been taught to divide work into categories of good work or bad, easy or hard, dignified or undignified; he had only been raised to recognize work done well, work done poorly, and work not done at all. If manure needed shoveling, in Will's mind the only true indignity was leaving it unshoveled." (p. 45)
This attitude is so far removed from our culture today. I'm not quite sure how one would go about teaching this...other than modeling it yourself.

"With good will render service, as to the Lord, an not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free."
Ephesians 6:7

No comments: