The Family That Works Together . . .

stays together. Kent and I have always taken the opportunity to work with our children whenever possible. We want them to appreciate work and realize that it's part of life. If you develop a positive attitude towards work early, it will be beneficial for life.

Our older children do earn money when they work in the family business on auction day as they have replaced other people we paid wages {they also don't earn full adult pay}, but most of their "work" is unpaid. We're all part of the same family and what benefits the family as a whole, benefits each member.

Of course, all work isn't drudgery and working with our children is a great way to accomplish a task and spend time together. They have also learned lots of valuable skills for life. Ty is learning to be a competent equipment operator and Madisyn is learning how to run the office.

Even before Papaw passed away the kids fondly talked about past auctions and how they worked with him. Those memories are even more sweet now that he is no longer here with us.  When you own a family business, family and business are intricately woven together.

There are a lot more opportunities to work than to play in life. If you can learn to find the joy in work, life will be more pleasant. If you're always counting down the days until you have a day off, life will become intolerable.

It seems lately that we've had several comments about our children being good workers and how lucky we are that they have such a good work ethic. I am very proud of our children. They are not perfect and they are all still in a training period.  I don't mention any of this to brag on them or on ourselves. I want to share the "secret".

First, luck has nothing to do with it. Everything we have is a blessing from God. Furthermore, Proverbs 22 : 6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go". They have their strong work ethic because of training. When they were 2 or 3, Daddy let them help. As long as they can remember, they've helped with the auction business but also folded laundry, wiped off counters, and swept floors. They didn't do the job perfectly the first time and rarely complete it perfectly now, but they are learning. We are training them {along with Unc, Nana, Mammie, Granddaddy and Papaw}.  All of us {children and adults} aren't finished and are very much still in the process.

Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.
Proverbs 20:11

You may wonder where the other children were while the auction was being set up . . .

they weren't quite as diligent as their older sister and brother, but they're still learning.