Virtually EVERY business I've had dealings with in the past month has had a "We're Hiring" sign in their window, on their marquee, or in signs posted on their property.
In this article posted recently in Epoch Times, a McDonald's franchise in Florida is even paying people $50 just to come in and interview. Businesses are trying their best to reopen from the pandemic, but now their potential employees are getting more money from stimulus checks and unemployment benefits than they were making before the pandemic. In many cases, people make more by staying home, watching TV, and eating cookies than they do by going to a job. A restaurant Steve and I went into recently had the following sign on their door: "We are short-staffed. Please be patient with the staff that DID show up." What have we done? In all my 70 years, I've never seen anything like it. When did we as a nation lose the value to be placed on our vocations, taking pride in doing our best and vowing to "give a full day's work for a full day's pay." What consequences will this have for my grandchildren? What will it take to turn things right side up again?
All the way back in Genesis chapter 2, immediately after God created Adam the first man, He put him in the Garden of Eden "to cultivate it and keep it." (v. 15) Adam was tasked with devising names for every bird of the air and beast of the field. Don't you wish you'd had a front row seat for that show? I do! The point is that the creation of man involved giving him the ability to work.
Work is a good thing.
Read these verses from God's Word about work:
Ecclesiastes 5:18 -- "This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot."
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 -- "I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God."
Colossians 3:23-24 -- "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
Psalm 90:17 -- "May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands."
Proverbs 27:23 -- "Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds."
Additionally, read these verses about laziness. It's no surprise that most of them come from the Book of Proverbs, often called the Book of Wisdom.
Proverbs 13:4 -- "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied."
Proverbs 10:4 -- "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich."
Proverbs 18:9 -- "Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys."
Proverbs 24:30-34 -- "I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man."
Proverbs 20:4 -- "The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing."
2 Thessalonians 3:10b -- "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."
If you're reading this, most likely you have the same viewpoint that I have. Work is a blessing, not a curse. I'm not sure what you or I can do about the situation, but I do know I'll be sharing these verses with my grandchildren and encouraging them in their chores and after school jobs. What about you?
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