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Work: Adam's Blessing
 When Adam and Eve were banished from Eden, God told Adam, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.” This law has never been revoked, and we still eat our daily bread, only by some version of the sweat of our brow. It is fascinating to consider how this law functions when unhampered by re-invention efforts.
At times our understanding of the “for thy sake” part gets washed away with the sweat of our daily labors. “Sake” is defined as “good, advantage; personal or social welfare, safety, or benefit”.
It is work that feeds and clothes our loved ones. Work builds our homes. The benefits of plumbing, communication, transportation, light, and health all are results of someone’s work. Those who do their work well prosper as they meet the needs of more and more people.
In Aesop’s fable of the grasshopper and the ants, the grasshopper neglected his work and went hungry. He did not understand that he could not prosper if his actions benefitted no one but himself. If he had done some hard mental work and figured out how to make his singing and dancing benefit others, he could have prospered and put food on his own table.
When the work we may have done for many years is no longer needed, we are confronted with uncomfortable choices. Changing realities teach us that we cannot continue doing the same thing over and over, and expect different results. We must either learn how to perform a new service that will benefit more people than our current work does, or perhaps go hungry.
There is a benefit clause in this seemingly relentless and sometimes overwhelming law. Throughout history, civilizations have prospered or failed in proportion to their observance of this law. When we obtain blessings, it is by obedience to those eternal laws, which were made in heaven, for our sakes. So as we persevere in faith, and determination to obey, we discover how marvelously this heaven-ordained principle works. We bless the lives of others by meeting some need through our work, and in turn we acquire the capacity to provide sufficiently for our temporal needs. We also experience other “side benefits,” as work ennobles our own and other human spirits. Blessings obtained by faith and obedience are as enduring as the irrevocable eternal laws upon which they are predicated.
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