by Marilynn Chadwick

"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man." Proverbs 6:10-11 NIV

I am not a naturally self-disciplined person. But I discovered early on that it was impossible for me to take the kids beyond where I had gone myself. If I was undisciplined, it was hard to discipline the children. If my schedule was inconsistent, it was hard to help them follow a schedule. If I quit before I reached the finish line, it was hard to teach our children to persevere.

When an airplane loses cabin pressure, we're told to administer oxygen to ourselves before we give it to our child. There are some lessons we have to "administer to ourselves" before we can teach them to our children. Hard work is one of those.

We encouraged our children to see all work as honorable—whether it was waiting on tables, doing weekly chores, or even folding laundry. Sometimes I would point out those who appeared to be "working with all their heart," like the guy who loaded up our groceries with an especially cheerful attitude. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for man" (Col. 3:23).

Hard work is vastly underrated in today's culture. I'm all for talking about the importance of big dreams. I love dreaming big, and I was passionate about helping our children reach their dreams. But without plenty of hard work, they remain just dreams. I once heard a quote that still is with me. "Insights are beautiful castles, but you can't live in them."

Proverbs 14:23 puts it this way: "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." God's Word is immensely practical as well as spiritual. These verses in Proverbs highlight the necessity of action over merely words. Disciplined effort results in gain, while constantly dreaming, and even talking, about our plans—without executing them—results in unfulfilled potential and a lackluster life.