This is No Housework Day.

Whoever named this day must have been tired, or must have wanted a break from the daily routine of washing clothes, dusting furniture, vacuuming floors, and cleaning up, picking up, and straightening up. But imagine if this day were to extend into a week or a month—what a mess!

The fact is someone needs to do housework. No one wants to live in disgusting filth. (Isn’t that how your room was once described?) That’s why families need to pull together and work together. So everyone is assigned jobs to do around the house.

Someone takes out the garbage. Someone sets the table. Someone takes care of the dishes. Other chores include cutting grass, shoveling snow, raking leaves, weeding, making school lunches, babysitting . . . the list seems endless. And everyone is expected to clean up his or her own messes!

Are you tired yet?

Actually, effective families are like winning teams (remember the Olympics?). And teamwork means that each person plays a role and does his or her part . . . and does it well.

You say, “Sometimes I feel like a slave!” Guess what—Paul was writing to real slaves when he wrote today’s verse. But it applies to any kind of work we have been given: work for pay, schoolwork, and even chores. We are to work hard and cheerfully. And the secret for doing that is to know that we are working for God, not Mom, Dad, the teacher, a coach, or a boss.

Which of your chores are waiting to be done? Get going.

Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people (Colossians 3:23).

To Do

This week, do your chores before you have to, especially before your parent gets on your case. And do your work with a good attitude. That will please God, and—who knows?—the rest of the family may fall down in shock!

Also on this day . . .

1864—One of the first camel races in the United States was held in Sacramento, California.

1930—The first steel columns were set for the Empire State Building.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.