When I was a teenager my Grandpa bought some hunting property in Northern Michigan. As part of plan to improve the property he decided to plant a bunch of pine trees and when I say a bunch I mean thousands of pine trees. If my memory serves me right it was something like 10,000 pine trees but I could be wrong. That summer I went up to the hunting property to help Grandpa plant trees. I remember one day as we were going in for lunch, Grandpa put his arm around me and said “Matt don’t ever be afraid of a hard day’s work”, I think he could tell I was bored and growing tired of planting trees. I think about that a lot, coming from a guy who grew up on a farm in North Holland I was aware that Grandpa knew what hard work was. I could always tell he got a great sense of joy from a hard days work.
Now that I have been on several mission trips where we do manual labor, I have realized that there are many students who have never been taught the value of a day of hard work. On the first day of these trips you can see that many of the students are visibly afraid to do some hard physical labor. Last summer at Cran-Hill one of the students on Monday the first day we were there, around 11am said she had already done more manual labor than she had done in her entire life. So my question is have we done a good job of teaching or kids the value of a day of hard work? I know that life doesn’t require manual labor like it did in generations past but there is still great value in it. It seems to to me the earlier you can teach this to your kids the better. If you don’t have a need for manual labor around your house you should find a neighbor who needs help or you could spend sometime at the many non-profit organizations who are desperate for some hard working volunteers.
The Bible has several verses that encourage us to work hard and to warn us against being lazy:
Col. 3:23 says “Whatever work you do, do it with all your heart. Do it for the Lord and not for men.”
Proverbs 21:25 “The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.”
I hope we can teach or children the joy and satisfaction that comes from a hard days work.
Standale Reformed Parents 
I think this is a great reminder for us all. As parents, I believe we try so hard make everything perfect for our kids, We pl vacations, have nice homes, buy them name brand clothes.
without really letting the kids know that there is a price to pay for everything. Often kids expect things because they know no different. We have created it. Kids can become self centered because that’s the only thing they were taught. I know I am guilty of this. As parents we have the best intentions, and only want the best for our kids, but we are doing them such an injustice. I would love to hear what other parents say? I hope Im not the only one 😦
I agree completely Mari, are best intentions are biting us in the behind.