June 17, 2026

Business by the Book

2 Chronicles 15:7 Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded. 

One of the rewards of work is the satisfaction of a job well done. I remember the very first time I enjoyed such satisfaction. I was a young boy, maybe in fourth or fifth grade. My room was a disaster, it was horrible. Mom used to say that my socks walked themselves to the washroom and at night I simply took off my jeans and stood them up in a corner. Under my bed, inside the closet, the bathroom, and every other inch of my room was terrible. My parents told me that if I cleaned my room I could put the old black and white television set we had in my room.

That was the motivation I needed. I spent all day; I believe it was a Monday, working on that room. I washed, vacuumed, organized, dusted, tossed away trash, and carried a multitude of dishes to the kitchen, it took all day. Finally it was finished, I remember turning on that television, found a baseball game, probably the Atlanta Braves on the UHF channel 17, and sat on my bed eating ice cream watching the game. While doing so I looked around the room and what I saw was pure beauty. Not so much the room, but the work put into the room. That sense of hard work brought on a self-satisfaction that I had never experienced before.

Now, so many years later I still enjoy that feeling. I need it, it is something I crave. Everyone who knows me probably knows that I love working with my hands. For some years I have made Christmas gifts for the deacons, teachers, and other helpers in our church. These are handmade all by me. I love doing this, one reason is that I love the people for whom I make the gifts, and the other reason is the self-satisfaction I receive from seeing the finished product. Sometimes I will pick up something I made and simply look at it remembering the technique used to make it, I think about the raw stock that I started with and how it was made, and I recall the steps it took to build the item: this all brings me much joy.

Your reward for your work may be different, but no doubt about it, all good hard work gives the worker a good reward. Whether it is money, prestige, position, self-satisfaction, or simply the work for work’s sake; all work shall be rewarded. That’s God’s Word on the matter.

Dr. William Howe