p. 16 | Being Above One's Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jul 11, 1912

Being Above One's Work

"I certainly can not understand Mrs. Warren," the girl said, her pretty brows lifted half in perplexity, half in disdain, as she watched the neighbor going home "'cross lots." "She is so quick-witted. You'd think she'd care for the best things,—books and culture and all that,—but she really seems to enjoy her housework and cooking more than anything else in the world. You saw how she was just now, as delighted over that new salad recipe you gave her as I would have been over a new thought."

The elder woman, the girl's hostess, laughed as if something amused her; but tenderly, too, for she loved the girl. "Why shouldn't she enjoy her work first and most?" she asked. "It is what she was put into the world to do."

"But the kind of work," the girl protested, "just common cooking and dishwashing. She might have thoughts above it."

"What would you think of a lighthouse-keeper who had 'thoughts above' cleaning lamps?"

"O, but that's different," the girl said quickly. "That's a matter of life and death to others."

Her friend shook her head. "No, dear; it isn't different. The task God puts into one's hands always demands joy and enthusiasm to be done as he wants it done. The problem is not one of having thoughts above one's work, but of lifting one's work to the level of one's greatest thoughts."—Selected.