For the past few months our family has been going over to a house we are
building and sweeping and cleaning for our Saturday work projects. While this is
probably not necessary for the progress of the house, it’s a great family project we
can do together while teaching the powerful principle of work. We typically take
an hour or two to clean and sweep the inside of the unfinished house. My kids
continue to tell me it is a pointless task as “the workers” will do it. They are correct
in stating that “the workers” will do it, as the goal is to teach them to be “the
workers” themselves.
Recently, while at the house sweeping, my nine-year-old daughter Holland
wandered off to a different part of the house to escape doing her part. I saw her
standing and doing nothing a number of times. I wasn’t happy with her work ethic
so I asked her a time or two to help out more and get to sweeping. She didn’t
respond very dutifully. Finally, I reprimanded her and said, “I am not happy with
your efforts. I feel you are not helping or working very hard; you need to help
more and do better.” She was angry with me and stormed off to a different part of
the house.
After a short time, I made it to the side of the house where she was now
effectively working and sweeping. On her side, she had accumulated many piles of
dirt, paper, garbage, and sawdust. She had been working much harder after the
reprimand. She and I finished up together by sweeping up her piles with a dustpan
and depositing them into a garbage bag.
On the way home from the house Holland and I had the following
discussion. I said, “Holland, I appreciate that you really increased your efforts
cleaning after we talked.” Young Holland looked at me and proudly and wisely
said, “Dad, I finished strong.”