Five Poppens & a PhD: Work: Joy-killing or Joy-giving?

Work.
Sometimes work just seems to get in the way - that pile of "stuff" that looms over me, holding me prisoner to a never-ending to-do list, preventing me from doing the things I really want to do.
Sometimes it seems like an overwhelming burden that leaves me gasping for air or calling out for time to hold still - a mountain of necessary tasks that only cause stress and strife and take the fun out of life.

Even for my children, work carries a negative connotation.
Cleanup is the end of playtime.
Homework is hard and tedious.
Work keeps Daddy away for long hours of the day and night.

Yet the Bible tells us a different story.
Work is a part of God's very good and perfect plan for life in Paradise.
Work was there in the Garden of Eden before the Fall turned it to laborsome toil.
Human beings were created to create, to produce, to cultivate, to grow,
"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

God works.
We are part of God's work.
God has work for us to do.

I have been deeply convicted by this quote about work from Sharon Simons (my teaching leader in Bible Study Fellowship):

"Doing God's work satisfies us like nothing else.
Doing God's work God's way brings great joy,
but doing God's work our way is a joy-killer."

Do I find satisfaction in the work I am doing? Am I a joy-killer in my own heart and home because of my attitude toward work? Am I doing God's work but doing it out of my own strength (and failing)? Or am I doing things that God has not called me to, as I fill my schedule with activities and efforts to impress or please people, or prove something, or do out of guilt to fulfill an expectation? Am I missing out on satisfying, joy-giving work God has for me each day because I am distracted and too busy doing what I think is most important?

This past month, the kids and I meditated on Romans 12:11 as one of our memory verses. The call to "work for the Lord with a heart full of love for him" replayed over and over in my head reminding me of God's desire for my work, and transforming my heart's approach to the work God has called me to do.

I don't have to.
I get to.

I get to do laundry and dishes and grocery shopping and floor mopping, working "with all my heart, as if for the Lord," (Colossians 3:23) and doing it out of heart full of love for God, my Provider, and love for my family - even when my children are ungrateful, track in mud or become a raging tornado of toys, and even when my husband doesn't fully appreciate my efforts or isn't able to help in the way I desire.

I get to teach, train and discipline my children, being gentle and kind and patient in the face of defiance, stubbornness and violence, bringing peace into chaos and quarreling, being by example a "model of good works" (Titus 2:7) and "doing it all through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

I get to work in my community, teaching children to love music, teaching children to love Jesus, serving friends and neighbors and strangers "all for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31) and "in the name of the Lord Jesus" while filled with thanksgiving (Colossians 3:17).

I get to - because God created me to work and do good work.

Work done out of a heart of love for God, for the glory of God and by the power of God satisfies and sustains.

May the Lord continue to transform my heart that all my work will become (and remain) joyful - done out of a heart of joy and bringing great joy to me and my household.