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I Can Find Joy in Family Work

"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."
-The Family: A Proclamation To The World 


Scripture


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


Hymn

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel Hymn 252
1. The world has need of willing men
Who wear the worker’s seal.
Come, help the good work move along;
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

[Chorus]
Put your shoulder to the wheel; push along,
Do your duty with a heart full of song,
We all have work; let no one shirk.
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

2. The Church has need of helping hands,
And hearts that know and feel.
The work to do is here for you;
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

3. Then don’t stand idly looking on;
The fight with sin is real.
It will be long but must go on;
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

4. Then work and watch and fight and pray
With all your might and zeal.
Push ev’ry worthy work along;
Put your shoulder to the wheel.


Lesson

 Read “Working Together” by Dorothy W. Peers (June 1975 Friend). Discuss the importance of learning how to work and how working together can be fun! 
(You may want to use clipart to help tell the story.)

“I can’t play with you tomorrow,” David told his best friend Kevin.

“Why not?” Kevin asked.

“Tomorrow Daddy will be home from the store and Brian and Carol will be home from school and we’re all going to clean up the yard,” David explained.

“All day?” Kevin asked.

“I guess so. There’s a lot of work to do. We’re going to rake leaves, pull weeds, trim shrubs, and paint things. We’re going to have fun!” said David excitedly.

“Fun!” Kevin said, wrinkling up his nose. “It sounds like work to me!”

“It’s not work!” David disagreed.

“It is so!” Kevin declared. “Raking and cleaning and painting are all work! That’s what my daddy says! You just ask your dad. Work isn’t fun! It’s hard!”

That night when Daddy came into David’s room to say good night, David asked, “Daddy, are painting and cleaning and raking work?”

“They certainly are!” Daddy answered. “And there’s a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

“Is it hard work?” David asked.

“Yes,” Daddy said. “So you get a good night’s sleep and you’ll be ready to help us in the morning.”

“All right,” David said slowly.

Before he went to sleep he thought about what Kevin and Daddy had told him. By the next morning he had decided he was not going to work. He wasn’t going to spend a whole day not having any fun.

At breakfast everyone was dressed in working clothes. David took a long time eating his cereal and drinking his juice.

“Come on, David!” Carol said.

“What a slowpoke!” said Brian.

“I don’t feel very well,” David said. The more he thought about not feeling well, the more he imagined his head hurt. “I have a headache,” he told them.

Mother felt his head. “You don’t seem to be hot,” she said, “but perhaps you should lie down on the couch until you feel better.”

David lay on the couch in the living room while everyone else went outdoors. He closed his eyes, but he was not sleepy. Soon Carol and Brian and Mother and Daddy were making too much noise outside for him to rest. They were calling to each other and making jokes and laughing and talking as they worked.

After a while he heard someone else laughing and talking. Quickly he got up and looked out the window.
It was Kevin! He was helping Brian carry a basket of leaves.

David forgot his headache and rushed out to the backyard.

“Kevin!” he cried. “What are you doing?”

“I’m having fun!” Kevin called.

“But this is work, and you said work isn’t fun!”

Kevin stopped. He thought for a moment. Then he smiled and said, “Working together is fun!”

David smiled, too. “That’s right,” he agreed. “Working together is fun!” And he picked up a rake and began to rake a big pile of leaves.

*Discuss these questions as a family*
1- What was David going to do with his family?
2- Why did Kevin think that it would not be fun?
3- What did David say hurt?
4- Who did David hear outside laughing?

Testify of the importance of work. 


Activity


1- Do some kind of activity or clean up on your yard.
2- Play Shrinking Islands.


Treat


Best Fudge Brownies
 
Few kids can pass up a chance to bake a batch of brownies, and this Best Fudge Brownies recipe is especially irresistible. Made with generous measures of chocolate, butter, and sugar, it yields the fudgiest bars we've sampled yet.
Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Instructions
  1. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch pieces and place them in the top of a double boiler in which the water is barely simmering. (No Double Boiler? No Problem. The trick is to find a heatproof bowl that fits about halfway inside one of your medium-size saucepans. A glass bowl or a metal mixing bowl with a handle works well. Be sure to fill the pan with only 1 or 2 inches of water - your bowl should always rest above the water, never in it.)

  2. As the butter melts, sprinkle the chocolate evenly into it. Leave the mixture over the heat for 5 minutes, then stir or whisk it until smooth. Transfer the top of the double boiler to a cooling rack and let the chocolate cool to room temperature.
     
  3. Best Fudge Brownies - Step 2Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350º. Lightly butter a 9- by 9-inch square cake pan (do not use a smaller pan) and dust it with flour, knocking out the excess.

  4. Best Fudge Brownies - Step 3Best Fudge Brownies - Step 4Combine the sugars in a large mixing bowl, using your fingers to break up any lumps. Add the eggs. Beat the eggs and sugar until well blended - about 30 seconds - with an electric mixer set on medium-high speed. Blend in the vanilla extract. Add the cooled chocolate (which should still be liquid) and mix on medium speed just until evenly blended.

  5. Sift the flour and salt into a medium bowl, then stir them into the chocolate mixture, about half at a time, until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the nuts. Then scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it with a spoon.
  6. Best Fudge Brownies - Step 5 Bake the brownies on the center oven rack for 30 to 35 minutes. When done, the brownies will have risen slightly and the top will have a thin, brittle crust. Do not overbake. For the best results, use 3 toothpicks to test for doneness. Insert one into the brownies about 1 inch from the side; it should come out clean. A second toothpick inserted 2 inches from the side should have a little batter stuck to it, and a third, inserted in the center, should be coated with a bit more batter than that.

  7. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool the brownies thoroughly. To get the cleanest cuts, cover and refrigerate the brownies for several hours before slicing (provided you can resist that long). Serve slightly cool or at room temperature. Makes 12 to 16 brownies.