If you are presently raising small children, you are indeed the blessed of all creation. But you are also, all things being equal, the busiest, the most tired, and the least free people on earth—your life not being your own. Though I can’t promise that your life will ever truly be your own again, I can assure you that you will again have some uninterrupted sleep; assuming they leave home, that is.
In my youth I read a book called, ‘The Time trap.’ It was designed for the workplace, and to this day I can recommend the efficacy of its wisdom. Life, however, is more than the workplace. Negotiating the external forces of the competitive world is just not the same as the internal workings of family and church life.
My point being, that a ‘day’s work’ for one good soul may bear little resemblance to that of another. A sister in the Lord, having raised three children to adulthood, had little choice but to raise three more when her daughter delivered them into her care (not an uncommon thing). So, I’m sure that any residual enthusiasm I might display over the book mentioned above would not be welcome in her life. And who could blame her?
Christians rise in the morning to do God’s work. All is done to bring glory to God. Honest labour, be it done with the strength of the back, the skill of the hand, or the sharpness of mind, is blessed of God. Good days and bad days, done in faith, are never wasted in God’s economy. “
I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labour—it is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.” (Eccl.3:12-14).
John Staiger
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