Christian Living

Running a household frugally and efficiently on one income takes creativity and commitment, but the family benefits when a parent is dedicated to overseeing the emotional, educational, and physical needs of the children.

However, the parent who stays home may have some doubts about what being a stay-at-home parent will cost them personally.

It’s common for a mom to be the one who stays home or does the majority of the teaching. That’s been my situation for many years, so I’m going to address the issues I’ve dealt with because of that choice.

We’ve all been there. Someone says something tactless, crass, slanderous—or all of the above, and the justification offered is, “Hey, I’m just being honest. Am I supposed to lie?!” No doubt, some of these “honest” folks are only posturing. But some seem to genuinely confuse the act of speaking one’s mind with the act of speaking honestly.

Yes, honesty, transparency and frankness are related. They share similarities—but so do cream of tartar, flour, and borax. Confusing similar things can have dramatic consequences.

Scripture helps us distinguish between frankness, openness, and honesty and, as a result, better distinguish right from wrong.

Read the series so far.

In a Twilight Zone kind of moment, imagine an all-night grocery store. Few are there: a stocker, a maintenance worker, and a check out cashier. Three shoppers arrive at approximately the same time. Sleepily they shop for the few essential items on their list. Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to each other, they manage to add the same six items—down to the very brand and packaging—to their shopping carts: milk, cereal, hamburger, two loaves of bread, and pancake mix. They move to the checkout.

The cashier is amazed by the oddness of the event: three shoppers, three carts, six items in each cart. And each cart has the very same identical items. He rings up shopper 1 then shopper 2, and then shopper 3:

On September 5, 1882, thousands of workers assembled in New York City to participate in America’s first Labor Day parade. The event was sponsored by New York’s Central Labor Union. According to documents from the period, workers and families marched from City Hall to Union Square, then gathered in Reservoir Park for picknicking, music, and speeches.

Several individual states established official Labor Day holidays until Congress turned it into a Federal holiday in 1894. Curiously, one labor union of that era also passed a resolution setting aside the Sunday before Labor Day as “Labor Sunday” to focus on “the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement” (Dept. of Labor).

What follows considers, not “spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement,” but biblical aspects of work in general, mostly from Genesis 2:7-15.

5 truths to help us value the blessing of work