It's more likely these days to see a teenaged boy playing Xbox or reading comics than mowing the yard or fixing his car. Bob Schultz sees this as a problem, not just with the general work ethic, but with our spiritual understanding of the purpose of work. Young men learn best by doing, he asserts, and many of the best character lessons they can learn are to be had while getting their hands dirty and using their bodies to accomplish a manual task. Work, he believes, is a sure path to manliness, while its absence leads to weak-willed and effeminate men.
Schultz urges young men to finish what they start, explore their creativity, respect authority (bosses, foremen, etc.), accept rather than be deterred by difficult tasks, and keep busy even when unemployed. A carpenter by trade, his advice is practical and rooted in God's Word, using Scripture verses and examples to encourage boys and help them discover their own vision. Questions at the end of each chapter help them put chapter content in perspective, and make this a good choice for a young men's study or for fathers and sons to read together and discuss.
Clearly this book is by a man who loves work. While his exhortations to be diligent and avoid laziness are certainly biblical, however, he seems at times to put more emphasis on the importance of physical labor than it actually deserves. He admits at the beginning that boys need to do their math and expend the effort to read important books when they have to, but seems to discount the importance or validity of intellectual labor elsewhere. Definitely not the best of Bob Schultz's eminently practical books, Created for Worknevertheless has plenty of good advice for a generation of young men becoming increasingly unfamiliar with work or exertion of any kind.
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