What Do Your Children THINK ABOUT WORK?
BY DR. BRYAN SMITH
T he Merriam-Webster dictionary defines work as“ sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result.” If that’ s a good definition— and I think it is— then most of our lives are filled with work. We face obstacles and seek to achieve useful results in our jobs, Monday through Friday. But we do similar things at home in the evenings and all day long on Saturdays.
At the moment, however, I’ m not thinking primarily about the adults reading this magazine. I’ m thinking about the children that those adults are responsible for helping bring to adulthood. Our children’ s lives are filled with work as well. Children have to face obstacles every day, and achieving objectives is an experience that’ s woven throughout their daily routines. Just think about the words we use to describe the rhythms of a typical school day: seatwork, group work, homework, workbooks, worksheets. A child’ s life at school is a life of work. And what do our children think about that?
If your children are like mine, you’ ve probably heard a lot of complaining about this topic:“ School is too hard.”“ We should have more fun.”“ Why do we have so much homework?” But is that what our children should think? I don’ t think so. Work— even hard work— is a good thing. Why do I say that? Because Genesis 1 teaches that we were made to work. In the Creation Mandate, God told the human race to subdue His world and“ have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth”( Gen. 1:28). It’ s true the word work doesn’ t occur in that verse, but the idea is definitely there. You can’ t achieve— or even begin to achieve— such a challenging calling without an enormous amount of work. And this, according to Genesis 1, is the reason God created us. We were made to rule over God’ s world in His name.
This is also the reason our children study math, science, social studies, English, and all the rest. They aren’ t jumping through hoops to get into the college of their choice. According to a biblical worldview, they are preparing themselves to fulfill the Creation Mandate of Genesis 1:28. The whole experience of school is— or should be— designed to develop in students the dispositions, knowledge, and skills that will enable them to live out the dominion commands of the first words God ever spoke to humans. Our students study science so they can manage the physical world God has created for them. They study math so they can maximize the usefulness of the resources God has entrusted to them. They study English so they can communicate with other humans about their God-given responsibilities and opportunities. And they study social studies so they can figure out ways to mesh their dominion endeavors with the institutions of our civilized world.
18 THE RENEWANATION REVIEW