Should we work hard? Seems like a silly question doesn’t it? Of course we should work hard and our work ethic should drive us to do so. But, not everyone is the same when it comes to this topic. According to the Pew Institutes Research, the last four generations (The Greatest Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers and Generation X) all counted work ethic as a significant part of what defines them. But the newest generation, The Millenials, don’t have this in their definition. It’s not that they mind work, it is just that when put in the context of the rest of their lives it’s not as important and maybe therefore, they just don’t see hard work as important as the rest of us. Guess what, we are all going to have to adapt to understand this better over the next decade. What makes any of us want to work hard is that we have something meaningful to work towards. We all can remember one of those situations where we have worked all night on a project and ate the pizza more than once and while we really didn’t want to be there, there was no place that we would rather be. Why? Because we felt that work was important and we were making a difference and what we were doing was important at the time. This makes the hard work worth it. I also think that there times when we are called upon to work hard and for us to set the right example we need to dig deep and know that we need to live up to the expectations of others. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul, Silas and Timothy write to the church in Thessalonica and they make it clear that sometimes work will be hard but the expectation is that we pull our weight. They say to the people there in Chapter 3:10; “Even while we were there with you, we gave your this rule: ‘Whoever does not work should not eat.” That means, they were expected to work, work hard and if not, then the most basic of rewards would be withheld. Maybe we are taking for granted that someone needs us to work hard this week. Maybe with just a little extra effort and oomph we can not only live up to expectations but also exceed those needs. When we do this, I believe we open up the door for more to come our way, but also earn the respect of others, which can lead to our examples being ones that others want to learn about and follow. A little hard work can go a long way.

Reference: 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (New Living Testament)