When I was a young man, I often heard my father say, “Work never hurt anyone.” I guess the reason he reminded me of those words is because there were times growing up that I was not always excited about the word “work” or the word “labor.”
However, I always felt good after a hard day’s work. It always made me feel like I had accomplished something.
As a young boy, I had to labor for my grandfather Bacon at times. He and my uncle were plaster contractors, which is almost a forgotten trade today. I spent my time in labor mixing plaster and carrying it to my grandfather and uncle.
At the end of the day, my job was to clean the buckets, trays and scaffolding. I well remember I was very tired when 5 p.m. rolled around. The next morning when we went back to the job, I always felt good knowing that I had a part in the beauty of the walls and ceilings. In other words, the day was well spent and not wasted.
If you can sit at set of sun
And count the deeds that you have done
And counting find
One self-denying act,
One word that eased the heart of him that heard,
One glance most kind
Which fell like sunshine where he went,
Then you can count that day well spent!
A few weeks ago, I met an Amish friend, and we were talking about work. He said something that made a lot of sense to me. He said, “If you don’t work, you can’t rest.” If you want success in life, it will require hard work; however, in the end, it will be worth it.
A quote from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers motto sums up my thoughts, “The difficult we do at once. The impossible takes a little longer.”
