I hope today’s object lesson can be of use to youth ministries, family devotionals, family counselors and family home evenings. I want to taste the topic of establishing a good work ethic with humor and commentary.
Joke: super dads:
Little Johnny was talking to a couple of boys in the school yard. Each was bragging about how great his father was.
The first one said, “Well, my father runs the fastest. He can fire an arrow and start to run. I tell you, he gets there before the arrow!”
The second one said, “Ha! You think that’s fast! My father is a hunter. He can shoot his gun and be there before the bullet!”
Little Johnny listened to the other two boys and shook his head. He then said: “Sorry, dudes, but MY DAD is the fastest. He’s a civil servant. He stops working at 4:30, and he’s home by 3:45!”
Received from Irene A. Mystery.
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This is a fun joke and is an interesting way to depict the value of a strong work ethic. I have always enjoyed the phrase, a honest day’s work for a honest day’s pay. I have heard various reports in the media that people joining the work field who okay well may not be as inclined to work hard. I hope that is not the case.
I have had many examples in my life of seeing people at work hard and are honest in their labor. Throughout my life I have done various jobs some more physically demanding and others not. I’ve appreciated the examples of my mother and siblings by their hard work. Parents and grandparents can teach the principal of hard work by example. I’ve always liked seeing parents give their young children assignments for cleaning up sections of the house or doing yard work. Some parents will have a work chart that will assign different tasks each week. Often a child cannot go out and play until their specific assignment is completed. This is a good way to teach work.
I have a specific memory of me sweeping the kitchen floor and not doing a very good job of it and of my mother taking the broom and showing me how to do a better job of it. In my youth, I often had responsibility of cleaning the dishes on Saturday night so we had a clean kitchen Sunday morning. I had the opportunity to have paying jobs while I was young. Two specific jobs I had were at different times. One was delivering a biweekly newspaper called true grit, I think that was the title. The other job was doing custodial work at an elementary in Hurricane.
Many parents will begin training their children while they’re very young, by giving them very simple tasks. As they begin to mature the complexity of their chores increase. Parents will often show them how to do the task and then watch the children as they perform the task to make sure that they do it accurately. This gives the children a chance to contribute to the comfort of the family.
Other important principals to teach about work is the relationship of honesty between employee and employer and working efficiently. Being a person of our word means we do the task we promised to do. Often when we perform a job well, employers may want to increase our responsibilities in the workplace, which gives us a chance to expand our abilities. Working efficiently can be developed by experience and by good training. Other contributions can be our desire to do a good job and looking for examples from those that do a good job of the task that we are performing.
As a family or class or family counselor you may have other ideas of what you would like to teach about work ethic. If you have ideas you would like to share here with this blog you’re welcome the comment, thank you.
