The work of a man’s hand comes back to him. Proverbs 12:14
“That’s what Labor Day is for,” my husband Lynn cheerfully announced as he sat at the kitchen counter, compiling a long list of tasks to tackle during the day that stretched before us. “It’s to labor!”
“Is not,” I corrected, reading the morning paper. “It says right here that ‘Labor Day was designated as a federal holiday by President Grover Cleveland in 1894 to honor the working man. The first Monday in September was chosen because it comes during the most pleasant season of the year and fills a wide gap in the chronology of legal holidays. Traditionally, it is celebrated with picnics and parades.’” I emphasized “picnics and parades.”
“Traditionally,” Lynn teased, “we celebrate it by working.” His joking was supposed to be the spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. Like it or not, he was right. For the last several years, we have used Labor Day as a gift of time to catch up and bring order back into a home that had been neglected during the summer of outdoor activities.
And though I resisted, the results were rewarding. Completing tasks that have nagged me for months usually rejuvenates me as much as a picnic or a parade. And the laboring did seem appropriate, because I’ve learned that the attitude and energy I have toward my Monday-through-Friday job has lots to do with the order of the home where I start and end my day.
So that’s why the holiday has become a “labor” day at our house, with tasks like the ones on this year’s list: update phone number list; sort through recipe and coupon drawer; repot house plants; clean kids’ closets. How about you this Labor Day? Do you have a project around the house that is nagging you? The results of tackling it may be as rewarding as a picnic or parade.
Thank You, Lord, for our jobs and our homes, and the gift of time to bring order back into our lives.
