Work! – Genesis 1:26-31
There are some Christians who grow up believing that work is bad, that it is a curse brought about by Adam and Eve's sin. Left uncorrected, this mistaken belief can cause people to feel that what they do in their jobs everyday isn't important to God, or at the least, isn't as important as the work of missionaries and pastors. This is not true, as (Genesis 1:26-31) reveals to us.
First, we learn that God Himself works, as evidenced by the fact that He rested on the seventh day. Then we discover that we were made in His image and that we were granted dominion over creation. This simply implies that we are to work to tend creation. Clearly the tending of God's creation is work, noble work, for God looked upon His labors and declared then "very good".
It must not escape our notice that work was declared good before sin entered the picture. In other words, work did not result from the fall and therefore is not a curse. We see this idea again in Genesis 2, when God "took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
Let us approach each day"s labor, whether at a job or doing another activity to help our family, with an awareness of the dignity and nobility God granted it in creation.