When did you start working? What was your first job?
These questions are normal for my generation. Your generation, too, I imagine. However, I am hearing more and more about a generation who doesn’t want to work.
Interesting conversations happen at Waffle House restaurants when you least expect it.
My friend, Teresa, and I are spending the week at Destin and couldn’t find any place to eat breakfast on our way to the Garden of Eden State Park. Waffle House saved the day!
The busy little restaurant was crowded and Teresa and I had to sit at the counter between two gentlemen who were already there.
A conversation started up. We talked about the scenic road 30A and all the new construction going on. He said there are $20 million houses being built, and he was a supervisor for his construction company.
“You wouldn’t believe what they are putting in these houses,” he said, “I wouldn’t do it.”
“Who builds these kinds of houses?” I asked taken aback.
“Professional athletes and coaches are some of them; you can see them on the streets and in stores,” he continued.
Because I have been interested and curious about the lack of people willing to work and the problems that the businesses are having finding people to work, I asked him whether he had trouble getting employees.
He looked at me with a stern expression and a sad look in his eyes, “Are you kidding? I can’t find people who will come to work every day. I can’t find people who want to work.”
He went on to say that they paid above the national average, but still couldn’t attract people. “It’s so expensive to live around here; we can’t live where we work. People can’t come here to work and afford to live here.”
We continued to talk and he told us some good restaurants in the area and the best beaches. Then he came back to the subject of working. He shared that he couldn’t get his own children to work.
“They say, ‘That work’s too hard.’ I told them they would have a hard time in life if they weren’t willing to do a little hard work,” he continued while he ate his breakfast.
I thought about what I have seen around our area and what this hard-working man said.
And I thought about what the Bible said.
2 Thessalonians 3:11-12 tells us: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat. We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.” (NIV)
Ecclesiastes 5:19 tells us: “And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work…this is indeed a gift from God.”
Work is good for us and is a way God can use to prosper us and bless us.
Teach your children to work, how to enjoy work and how to do work the best they can!
