The hardest job in the world

Today I was reading an article about “What is the hardest job you have had?” Man there are some tough jobs that people do … makes me appreciate even more what I have here at the church. Some of the responses included:
· Paper spinner in a textile factory
· Building decks for houses
· English language teacher overseas (we do this in Asia for one week and that’s tough enough. I can’t imagine having to teach grammar; various spellings of the same word like pair, pear, or pare; etc…)
· Line cook in a kitchen
· Working on a dairy farm
· Plucking chickens at a processing plant (now there’s a job I’d love to have … not)
· Tying rebar in a ditch

Anyway, reading these jobs got me to thinking about the toughest job I’ve ever had. Was it delivering newspapers outside door to door in Anchorage during the winter? How about the four years I spent as a “Pre-trial release officer” going in and out of the Tarrant County Jail in Ft. Worth? Or maybe it was the job in the lumber yard I had for one day (I quit because that WAS one tough job).

But as I reflected on these I think none of them qualify as the toughest job I have ever had. I think they pale in comparison in fact; that they were all much easier than the job I’m going to describe. I think the toughest job I have ever had is parenting. What makes it so difficult is the fact that there’s only really one way to learn to do it well … experience. You can read all the “self-help” books out there but in the heat of the moment when lives are affected by everything said and done experience is the only and best teacher. I look back and there are many things that I say “Wow God – you really helped me hit that one out of the park in that situation.” And there are other times when I know I failed miserably in a situation. Experience is about the only thing that you always get after you need it.

When kids are small they are so moldable and pliable. But when they are small, especially if you have multiple kids, often you are just happy to get everyone fed, bathed, and homework done. Then by the time you start to realize maybe I should have spent more time developing this character trait or that discipline, often the old patterns then are almost impossible to break. Parenting, you don’t get paid to do it but the benefits really can be out of this world. Parenting it’s a job that can bring the greatest joys in life and the hardest heartbreaks. Maybe there’s a bit of truth in what I’ve heard from others, that God gives us grandchildren to have a second chance. So what about you? What’s the hardest job you have ever held? What made it so difficult?