Labor Day is celebrated in September to commemorate the employment that provides our necessities and luxuries. While some people work during this holiday, most Americans enjoy a long weekend. School children celebrate with a day off from school. Labor Day has been renamed “The Last Day of Summer.” Although the last official day of summer is approximately two weeks off, vacationers may try to squeeze in one last trip before school and work schedules prohibit extended family outings.
Tommy KellyEven though most families have finished their vacations by this point, Labor Day should be a season of reflection and thanksgiving. Through reflection, a person can remember the preparation and start of their respective vocations, as well as the decision, and people who created their present work environment. In thankfulness, a person can recollect the products of the labor that enable them to provide food, shelter, clothing and education, along with other necessities and luxuries. It is through our jobs that we receive some valuable educational experiences.
One memorable experience from my work experience came in the summer of 1981. I had just completed my freshman year in college and returned home for summer vacation. While my grades were not horrible, they were not indicative of my ability. My mother was mildly disturbed by my lack of academic success. However, my father prepared to teach me a lesson through labor that would ignite my academic performance.
To support their family and educate their children, my parents both worked two jobs. Yet it was an unwritten agreement that I would work during the summer to help defray college costs and replenish my supply of “spending money.” While I would have settled for any old job, my father told me he had taken the liberty of finding me a job at the local textile plant where he worked. However, this particular job had as much appeal to me as my college math and economics classes.
I started this particular job in the middle of May. For six days a week, I worked Monday through Saturday from four o’clock p.m. to 12 o’clock a.m. The only day off was Sunday, and my parents, without exception, made me go to church. This job lasted until the middle of August, when I returned to college.
Before leaving for my sophomore year, my father posed an important question. He asked, “What did you learn this summer?” The silence was interrupted by my father answering for me, “If you don’t study harder, you have seen where you may end up.” The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6 NIV).
Work and the fruit from one’s labor are valuable teaching aids. Hard work is said to build character, while idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Labor is a marvelous teacher. The next year, I handed my father my grades – all A’s and B’s.
Kelly is the pastor of First Baptist Church, Varnville.