Patchwork
Theme of the Week: Inspired Elbow Grease
Larry Harris
Monday, August 29, 2005
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty (Proverbs 21:5). Bonus Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Dad was a platoon sergeant. Arriving home, he'd hug us and ask about our day. Then he'd usually open the rear car door and take out a load of fatigue uniforms. "Give me a hand, boys," he'd say to Fred and me. He earned extra money by sewing chevrons on his troops' fatigues. If I remember correctly, the post laundry charged 50 cents each; he did the job for 25. There were often so many uniforms in the house that we had little room to play.
Sewing chevrons wasn't a prestigious job. In effect, he was working for soldiers with lower rank. That never bothered Dad—ever. I can close my eyes and hear him say, "Any honest job is good if you do it right." He also cut hair, drove taxi cabs, worked for a bowling alley on base, and as a bouncer for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars club. No honest work was beneath him.
Once I told Dad about a family down the street who'd gone on welfare. "We all have bad times, I guess," he said. "But this is one family that won't have to go on welfare. We take care of our own." He was sewing chevrons at the time, and paused from knotting his thread to look up at me. "That's why I do this work."
—Larry Harris in It All Starts at Home
My Response: Do I see a strong work ethic as a biblical value?
Adapted from It All Starts at Home (Revell, 2004) by permission.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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