Clair on Roofing

 

I taught school for fourteen years and worked construction in the summers.  Since I taught school, I had a ready workforce in my students.  Whenever I roofed a house, I would hire three or four high school students to do the grunt work.  It was hot and hard work, but I paid well.  On one particularly hot day in July, we were working in Soddy-Daisy on a rancher tearing off the old shingles.  There were no trees around and the sun was scorching.  We sat down on the back porch for a few minutes of rest and I thought it would be a good teaching moment.  So I said, “Now boys, if you don’t get a good education, you’ll be working like this the rest of your lives.”  There was silence as the thought sank in.  Then Clair R. spoke up and said, “So, Mr. Whitely, why are you still roofing?”  I didn’t have an answer, so I said, “Shut up, Clair!  Let’s get back to work.”  We all had a laugh and went back to work.  Solomon said in Proverbs14:23, “In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.”  Work is a good thing, whether you work with your hands as a roofer or work with your brains as a teacher.  God honors honest labor.  Here’s Uncle Gerald’s advice:  Work hard.  Save all you can.  Give all you can.  Enjoy the work that you do.