Someone's got to do it

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed … 2 Timothy 2:15
One of my childhood Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Retha Docken, made sure all her students could quote this passage, her favorite. She shared the lesson that she took from it – that there is no job too humble not to do to the best of your ability.
She was an older widow who worked as a housekeeper for a middle aged widowed farmer and also raised his motherless daughter. I don’t know anything about her life before she spent it in someone else’s home, but she obviously had felt some condescension from other women who may have considered her little better than a servant or “hired girl”. But she knew that there was a job for her and she did it with dignity.
I have done a variety of jobs over the years, both paid and unpaid. I have faithfully tried (not always successfully) to follow Mrs. Docken’s example to do them to the best of my ability. Her lesson has given me the strength to finish some difficult jobs and to try to do even menial chores well.
To make this not too noble, someone has to clean the toilets - but you can also enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.  Maybe this is a lesson that still needs to be shared with young people today.

4 comments:

  1. I've just found your blog and I love it! Great information, recipes, and antidotes. Thank you! :)

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  2. My mom always beat this into my head as a kid. And now, I live by it. Not because she was so adamant about it any more, but because it's right and good.

    Nice post!

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  3. I am a divorced bachelor (I was married for 24 years) and I have a maid service that cleans my house every other Monday. So every Monday morning before they arrive I run around the house like a mad man picking stuff up off the floor etc. so that they won't think I am a complete and utter slob. Then there's the toilet. It's...awful. So I grab the scouring powder and the brush and give it a good once over. I get rid of most the mess. But when I come home from work in the evening, the place is wonderful. Everything is put away and vacumed, dusted and even any dishes that I left laying around are washed. But the toilet.....it positively GLEAMS (how do they do that anyway?). I can relax. I just wish now that they didn't have to see my saliva stained pillow case when they changed out the bed. Oh well, but the feeling that night when I come home, it's terrific.

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  4. Thank you. I've been a wife and mother for over 2 decades. Today I said out loud "I hate to clean". Feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with the repetitive endless nature of my "job", in addition to running a full time business. Thank you for reminding me of the importance of every single task. God bless you.

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