Work Like a Beaver

I believe that every one of God's creations has a purpose. Some, it might seem, are simply to fuel the food chain, and I admit there are creatures that repel and baffle me. But many more intrigue and delight me--and I believe that a portion of the measure of their creation is to teach valuable lessons.

Take the beaver. Second only to human skill, beavers have the amazing ability to manipulate and change their environment. How do they do this? They work! Occasionally beavers will burrow into muddy banks, but more often they work to transform less suitable habitats into happy homes. And how do they work? Together...as families. 

A group or family of beavers is called a colony. The dam or dome built is home for extended families of monogamous parents, their young kits, and yearlings born the previous spring. Each member of these families has a job to do to contribute to the home. Don't believe me? Watch the video below. 

I was fortunate on my trip to Alaska to be able to watch a beaver family hard at work in the late evening (10:30 p.m. as it was in the Land of the Midnight Sun) and stand just five feet from the adult beaver featured here with my camera.  There were two other grown beavers busy in the immediate area that I could see that I didn't film. Listen closely for the little kits' childlike noises and observe how even the youngest members of this family do their part as they are able. (Occasionally the camera will go out of focus as the beavers move, but it will clear up quickly.)

Chapter 13 of Strengthening Our Families by The School of Family Life at Brigham Young University is titled, "The Meaning and Blessings of Family Work." It is packed with so much. Here are a few highlights:

• Some people think that it was Adam and Eve who were cursed when they left the Garden of Eden. It was the ground that was cursed, FOR THEIR SAKE, meaning that the hard work of eating bread "By the sweat of thy face" was meant to be a blessing. (See Moses 4:23-25)
• Likewise, the labor of bringing forth and caring for offspring was a blessing unto salvation for Adam and Eve (and all of us).
• "Family work links people. It does so by providing endless opportunities to recognize and fill the needs of others. In every dispensation of time, in every culture, whether in poverty or prosperity, people need to be fed, clothed, sheltered, and succored. Family work is universal and, by its nature, can bind us to one another."
• Working together side by side builds relationships; it gives opportunity for heart-to-heart talks, object lessons, lighthearted banter, and making memories.
• "Before industrialization, most men learned the trade of their fathers....To them, freedom came not from choosing what they wanted from many options, but from choosing to do well the work they were called to do. Indeed, the word vocation is derived from vocatio, a Latin term for a calling. As fathers began earning a living away from the household, the notion of work as a calling began to disappear. Where a son once forged ties with his father working side by side as he learned farming or the family business, he now followed his father's example by distancing himself from the daily work of the household....By the 1950s, fathers had so fully left the domestic circle that they became like guests in their own home.
• "As homes shifted from centers of production to centers of consumption, the role of children reversed. Prior to modernization, children shared much of the hard work of family life, laboring alongside their fathers and mothers. This work was considered good for them; it was part of their education for adulthood."
• "In contemporary society, we are encouraged, in fact expected, to apply business principles at home. We are taught to seek measurable results (a clean house), to employ efficient use of resources (no wasting time or money), and to manage by maintaining control (reward good workers, penalize shirkers). The 'bottom line'--money--guides much of our thinking. For example, we are told to consider the dollar value of a mother's time to decide how much family work to do. Why make a dress when we can buy one, or cook a meal when it is 'more economical' to serve convenience foods?...But business thinking is not necessarily effective in a gospel-centered home. How does one divide 'striving to be of one heart and mind' into applicable tasks? how does one measure progress towards 'serving the Lord with all of our might, mind, and strength'?"
• President Spencer W. Kimball addressed the fallacy of assessing the value of family work by temporal standards:  "I hope that we understand that, while having a garden, for instance, is often useful in reducing food costs and making available delicious fresh fruits and vegetables, it does much more than this. Who can gauge the value of that special chat between daughter and Dad as they weed or water the garden?...And how do we measure the family togetherness and cooperation that must accompany successful canning?...Perhaps the greater good is contained in the lessons of life we learn....Even if the tomato you eat is a $2.00 tomato, it will bring satisfaction anyway and remind us all of the law of the harvest which is relentless in life....We do reap what we sow."

In another *fantastic book, Created for Work, author Bob Schultz begins with, "In the education of boys today we've lost the importance of work as a most effective tutor. What is the good of knowing how to read or write if a young man doesn't have the heart to work, to produce, and to create? Boys are often forced to sit for hours, year after year, in front of books. Modern child-labor laws hinder and even prevent them learning to enjoy strenuous work. Then, after twelve to sixteen years of inactivity, folks wonder why all their teenager wants to do is sit on the couch playing games....

"Within every man is the desire to work to produce. Some men don't even know that it's there.... I hope that Created for Work encourages you to appreciate your Creator Who is always at work and Who has made you in His image."

He continues later, "Work isn't just a job you are required to do; it's aligning with God to make increase."

Whether it's for an increase of wisdom, of muscle, of goods, of love, of spirituality, or of all of this and more, work is what makes it happen. Certainly individuals need to work for themselves, but to build a strong family, families also need to work together.

Here are some of my favorite "working memories" with my children.  Each photo is of one child, but these are some of the family chores we do together, and they are happy in their work.

*I highly recommend Created for Work, but I need to tell you that I crossed out a little bit of the text. I esteem Mr. Schultz as a very good and wise man, but latter-day revelation in the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ has restored knowledge of beneficial truth regarding Adam and Eve.  Therefore, I crossed out chapter 7 on "exit strategy" because I believe that Adam and Eve were married for eternity. I also crossed out a portion of chapter 14 because Adam and Eve's partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil had nothing whatsoever to do with greed.