Mike Mayberry of Manchester, Missouri, told the following story to Reader’s Digest:
“Determined to have one last, lazy day of fishing before summer’s end, I purposely ignored the leaky faucet and the broken gate – household projects that had awaited me all summer. When my wife asked, “What are you going to do today?” I grinned and answered, “It starts with F and ends with ISH.”
“OH, good,” she replied, “You’re finally going to FinISH up those projects.”
One of the primary roles of a husband is to make his wife feel secure. When she develops that honey-do list and posts it on the refrigerator (or wherever she posts it), she has transferred that responsibility over to him. She assumes it will get done in a timely manner.
It is a wise man that doesn’t feed her insecurity by making her feel uncovered in a dark world. If you’re going to put it off, tell her when you’ll do it – and keep your word. Thus shall you make your wife feel secure and under your protective cover.
Tags: humor, marriage, responsibility, work
You’ve gotta appreciate the effort. Years ago Eugene Ormandy was leading the Philadelphia Orchestra in a concert. Now conductors aren’t known for their ability to play any musical instrument. No conductor has ever released a top selling LP recording.
But on this occasion Eugene Ormandy dislocated his shoulder while conducting! We do not know what they were playing. Certainly not Mozart. Perhaps Stravinsky. At any rate, he was giving all of himself to it.
The question for each of us is, ‘When is the last time we ever dislocated anything?’ (car keys excluded). Perhaps we need a little extra oomph in what we do.
This story reminds me that Paul advised the Christians in Colosse, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Let’s see if we can dislocate something.
Tags: effort, work
According to The History of Early Education in Eastern DeKalb County they had a unique method (by today’s standards) for construction of a new school building. Back in the middle 1800s, each township was responsible for public education, and had multiple one- or two-room schoolhouses strategically placed around the township. Many of these buildings still stand today.
In 1849 a new brick school building was to be built in Wilmington Township. Every adult male in that township between the ages of 21 and 50 was taxed two days labor on the facility. I don’t know how they paid for building materials, but we know how they got the labor: they ordered it.
I’ve often contemplated how to recruit more laborers for the Kingdom within our church. We can’t just “tax them”. And we can’t afford to pay them. What do you think is a solution to the labor problem among the many ministries of the church?
Tags: education, labor, work