Work: Service and Creativity

In Sunday School yesterday, we were discussing self reliance, and we came across a scripture that I found interesting:

Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands! (D&C 56:17)

 We discussed for a little while the importance of work, and why it is important not to be idle. My thoughts are that most people do want to work: most people want to feel useful, and to be appreciated for their contribution to society. I think that it is when people feel that they have nothing to contribute or that their contribution isn't appreciated that they lose the desire to work. On the other hand, work is more satisfying and brings more joy when it provides an appreciated service or when it satisfies our creative urges (I wrote about these last week).

Before I go further, let me define a few terms:
Work: human labor, employment, occupation, or job; the useful things we do to fill our time, whether they are paid or not; our contribution to society
Creativity: to bring something new and valuable into being that did not exist before, problem solving.
Service: to help or do something for someone else.
Appreciated Service: when that which we do to help is valued by the person or people receiving the service.

William Morris, a designer and artist, said, "If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." I believe that this applies to the work that we do: It should be useful  (service), or it should be beautiful (an act of creation).

Before my children were born, I worked at Kinko's. (This was in the days before the merge with FedEx.) I started out helping in the self serve area, and eventually moved behind the counter as a color copy expert. I loved working there. Why? I was providing an appreciated service - I was helping people to copy photos and artwork, helping them to create things that they valued. I also had opportunities to express my own creativity when I was brought projects that required some ingenuity in order to accomplish. I was both serving, and being creative. I had the best of both worlds.

Think of different occupations and where they might fall on the graph to the left. Some jobs, like that of a mailman, are acts of service, but may involve very little creativity. Others, like an artist who paints solely for art's sake, involve lots of creativity, but little service. An architect or designer might lean more towards creativity while a cashier or bookkeeper might lean more towards service. Where would you place a doctor on the graph? Or a farmer? or a lawyer? An accountant? A politician? I believe that we feel the most fulfilled and satisfied when our work involves both (appreciated) service as well as creativity.

The amount of service and creativity we get out of an occupation will, of course, vary depending on our perception of that occupation. Do you see your job as one in which you provide a needed service? Do you make people's lives easier or better in any way? Do you feel appreciated by your coworkers/customers/boss/family members/neighbors/friends? Do you see your job as one in which you can be creative, where you are bringing something new and valuable into the world? Are you solving problems, figuring out puzzles, using your imagination? If your answer is yes to these questions, I would guess that you like the work that you do. If your answer is no, then what can you do to change, to increase the service and/or creativity in your work?

You'll notice that I put mother high on both creativity and service. The act of creation only begins at birth. A mother's work is an ongoing creative process as she molds and shapes her children into righteous, loving, trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent contributors to society. Her life is also filled with service - cooking, cleaning, laundry, chauffeuring, etc. Sometimes the day-to-day service doesn't seem very appreciated. While bringing order to the chaos of children's bedrooms could be considered creative, the amount of satisfaction gained from it depends greatly on the rate of entropy, or how quickly all our hard work is undone. (I just cleaned up this place! Can't it stay clean for five minutes?") How appreciated our service is also make a difference to our feeling of satisfaction. ("Mom, since you cleaned my room, I can't find anything!") For the most part, however, I do feel joy when I think of my children and my role as mother. I hope that some day my children will appreciate the service I do for them, and that they will continue to be wonderful people of whom I'm be happy to admit being their mother. I expect great joy from my labors in raising my children: "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25) "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." (3 John 1:4)

"But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another." (Mosiah 4:15)  In order to gain that joy, I need to teach my children to work. How do I do that? How do I teach them to serve one another? A few things have occurred to me:

1. Show greater appreciation for their efforts. No one likes to feel unappreciated, that their labors are not valued.
2. Help them see that their chores are acts of service - and help them feel how appreciated that service is.
3. Help them find ways to make their work more creative. To quote Mary Poppins, "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun [creativity] and *snap* the job's a game!"

What do you think? How would you rate your work on a service/creativity graph? How have you taught your children to work? Do you agree with my thoughts? Disagree? Why? What would you add? What would you change?