If you will not work then you are not to eat
Use this short devotional to teach your children or the young people you are training on the mission field to work, They need to know what God says. You can teach this in 5 minutes or so. Help them realize it is not you plan or will that they work but God, their Creator.
Exodus 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work , thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
God prescribed that man would work for six days and rest the seventh
The real issue was the rest that is commanded here
It is in man’s nature since creation to work
The question is will you learn to work productively
God had worked for six days and then rested
You are to follow His example
We need work and we need rest
The sons and daughters were expected to work
Our parents should teach us to work
Work is expected of all
The commandment to work is found in several places in Scripture. So learn to work .
If you will not work then you are not to eat II Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
You are to work with your own hands I Thessalonians 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
Work with all your might, but never trust in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing in God, but work at the same time with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray, then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work.
George Müller
Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd, 2000), 1132–1133.
The Dignity of Work