Consider the Ant

Orchids Galore! Ginter Botanical Garden. Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

You lazy fool, look at the ant.

Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.

Nobody has to tell it what to do.

All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions.

So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?

How long before you get out of bed?

A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,

sit back, take it easy - do you know what comes next?

Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,

poverty your permanent houseguest!

Proverbs 6:6-11

My father was a man who believed in working hard to provide for his family.  Absolutely no grass grew under that man's feet!  He got up early, went to bed early, and packed the hours inbetween with work, home time, and play.  He had a whole smorgasbord of  hobbies and side jobs.  If Mom needed an extra few dollars for our music lessons, Dad would sharpen saws or re-rag an airplane.  If you were driving down Thomas Road in Phoenix, it was not at all unusual to see the tail end of a plane shooting up above the oleander hedge surrounding our corner backyard.  

Dad passed his work ethic on to his children.  My first job, at the age of 16, was photo retouching in the portrait studio of a family friend. During the summers, I worked at The Arizona Republic & Phoenix Gazette newspaper or at the Arizona Highway Patrol.  My brothers had paper routes and also worked at the newspaper.  We did not feel that life was unfair because we had to work.  On the contrary, I knew that working was the way to obtain some of the things that I wanted but could not otherwise afford.

When my girls were in their teens, I worked part-time in the office of a packaging plant.  The kids were at the age where they were complaining about school and longing for freedom.  Their years of education to come stretched out before them in a never-ending path that caused much grumbling, so one summer, I got them a job at the plant.  They stood in an assembly line punching Tonka Toy truck tires and then packing them in cases. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week they punched and packed toy tires. It didn't take long for them to be bored out of their minds, and finally the plain truths of life began to sink in.  By the end of the summer, there were a few things they knew for sure: they did not want to pack toy tires for a living, there was a method to the madness of education, and they needed to think carefully about what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives.