3.25-Good workers get great joy from God, their heavenly Father and much more.

3.25-

She's always is busy when we come into the restaurant. Maybe taking lemons and making lemonade.

 She always has a smile. I have been eating breakfast there for about three years with four of my employed, white collar job friends. She’s finishes pouring up the lemonade, then the floors need to be mopped. This means picking up all the big doormats and stacking them on the trash bag containers. She has this big smile and friendly manner, but not at all “flirty”.

After the guys left for work I normally sit a bit and reflect on our meeting and get up my courage and mental to do list of the day. She came close to the table mopping. 

“I’m in your way. Let me move out of here.”
“Oh, no you are not.”
“I have noticed how that since you have been here the last month the floors are cleaner and the floors under the mats are mopped.”

She smiled real big. “I think my work keeps me young. How old do you think I am?”

At age 72 I am old enough and hopefully wise enough to know this is a dangerous question.
I looked and waited and thought deeply for an honest answer. She has unwrinkled brown skin.
I said, “40”.
“50”.
“Yes, your work does keep you young.”

“I get up at 4am. We open at 6am. I work until the afternoon. I go home and clean my own house and my bathrooms and cook dinner and about 8.30pm I crash into bed and go to sleep until 4am. Then I do it again. I have two children, a son, 33, and a daughter, 31, and two grandkids, John 12 and Jacob 2. I’m from Mexico. I have a brother in Georgia and another brother who lives here. My parents, dad, 78, mom, 90, live in Mexico.”

I said, “My name is Larry.”
She said her name.

I said, “My parents taught me that all work has nobility. No one is too good to do anything. They were hard working farmers. They also worked in a grocery store and butcher shop. They loved people and they loved their work and they loved encouraging other people at work.”

She said, “My boss tells me that he likes my work. I started as just a cleaning person, but I have moved into helping with other areas because of my work.”

“Some people believe that people from Mexico are not hard workers. I have had the opposite experience. Many people who work at my house in my yard and other places are some of the best workers I have seen.”

She smiled. “ I know you guys come here for study every Thursday morning. For me it's Jesus who makes me a good worker. I get tired. I say a little prayer. ‘Help me Jesus.’”

“Me, too, I said. Thanks for telling me about your work and your family. We are happy you all do a good job to make our meeting here very pleasant. Thank you.”

“See you next week Larry.”

"Hope to be here.'

Larry Wishard
3.21.19

Matthew 25.

¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,^[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷ So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸ But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
¹⁹ “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
²¹ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
²² “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
²³ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
²⁴ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
²⁶ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷ Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
²⁸ “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹ For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

 He had grown up on this wisdom.  He was the source of wisdom itself.

Proverbs 6.

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
⁷ It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

Larry Wishard

3.21.19