Colin Powell has said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” One of the things we would like to inculcate in our kids is the value of hard work. I just recently posted a blog (link here) when our kids also went to work harvesting corn. This is how important it is for us to teach our kids to work. It not only let’s them experience what an average laborer goes through, but also gives them a valuable lesson in working so one can earn.

A lot of kids live in relative ease these days. A lot of middle-income families here in the Philippines have one or two house-helpers who literally follow up after our kids that they (the kids) depend on them to do chores as simple as fixing their beds or picking up their laundry off the floor, for them. This, we would like to change. And although we do have house-help, we still encourage our kids to, at least, do some work around the farm.

Our family raises chicken called Grandparent Stock for a company called Bounty Fresh. Sometimes, especially during the peak of egg-laying season, our boys are tasked to go into the poultry and help the flock men harvest eggs. Hens’ eggs are collected and brought to a hatchery located near our area. The hatchlings are then brought to broiler farms where they will be raised to be the chickens that lay the eggs that end up on our tables.

Work might be a challenge for your children, especially if they aren’t used to it, but it’s something we feel we must teach to our kids. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (NASB). We’ve heard this verse a lot of times that it seems cliche, but the principles it teaches is something that will teach our children a valuable lesson. Something that will be of advantage to them when they are grown.