The Blessings of Old Fashioned Work ~ Part Two

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

~ Genesis 3:19

Ever since sin entered the world, work became a sweaty and toilsome event. Most people go out of their way to avoid it... But is the fruit of idleness that sweet?  I think it may be costing us and in many different ways. In fact, it may be that old fashioned labor yields the sweetest fruit.

“There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should

earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.” 

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women (Volume 1: Wisdom and Virtues)

Working with our hands blesses our emotional, financial, spiritual and even physical needs. A good dose of honest labor keeps us healthy with its therapeutic and stress relieving abilities along with the common, everyday use of our muscles for exercise. 

“Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade.” 

~ Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse

For example, the act of growing your own produce creates a gentle workout for the homemaker, in slow and steady movements. It affords us a moment of fresh air, a de-cluttering of our over-stimulated minds, and a splash of sunshine while stretching out our burdened bodies to keep ourselves agile and strong. The outcome is much more than just vegetables.

We can also consider the sweet blessings of sweat. Our loved ones are being subjected to many diseases in this modern world. An overload of toxins in our body is said to be a major contributor to many of our health problems. Can it be that we are depriving ourselves of the healing powers of sweat since much of our lives are being spent sedentary in front of a screen? Are we removing that opportunity to release excess toxins that are brewing havoc in our bodies when we pass on that old fashioned work?

(Note: What is Making Me Sick? and Your Genes are Not Your Destiny are both favorite videos featuring Dr. Micheal Bernui which shares this thought along with some other encouraging ways to live healthy lives from a godly perspective.)

"Labor, honest labor, is mighty and beautiful. "

~ The Royal Path of Life, 1882

The act of sweating also: "improves circulation, accelerates metabolism, opens skin pores, cleanses the skin, boosts the immune system, uses energy and burns calories, relaxes body and mind, great for stress relief, helps body release toxins, sweating is a form of exercise, helps body to regulate its temperature and cool down, anti-aging – produces softer skin, releases endorphins that help with pain, improves tone and flexibility of skin, critical factor in body’s hydration process, contains natural antibiotics that destroy harmful skin bacteria, can reduce cholesterol and sodium levels and may improve sleep."  (source)

It makes one wonder, what have we given up?

There is also our physicial need of vitamin D (which is actually a hormone) to consider. Sunshine cheerfully gives this to us! Fifteen minutes of time in the sun without sunscreen is recommended by the Nat'l Institution of Health. This is especially important for older women because it gets harder for your body to produce vitamin D as you age. This time in the sun will benefit in the following areas including an overactive immune system, heart disease, osteoporosis, breast, colon cancers, helps fight insomnia and depression. It also aids your body to absorb calcium and utilize magnesium which affects many areas of the human body (source).

“Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace.” 

~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Old fashioned labor is also a wonderful stress-reliever which promotes health in its own right. There is healing power in scrubbing and scouring as we release bottled up emotions, hurts and pains. It can be quite soothing to the soul! One can even bring some indoor work to the outdoors in order to breathe in the fresh air, soak in the vitamin D while applying some elbow-grease to those long awaited household tasks.

“There's nothing like active employment, I suppose, to console the afflicted.” 

~ Anne Brontë

It is so easy for the modern-day homemaker to curl up and hibernate in our cozy and comfortable cottages but is this the healthy lifestyle that God intended for His people? While I am not suggesting that women go out and break their backs like some of our ancestors were forced to do because of poverty and survival, I have been contemplating my own level of activity on our farm. I have been consciously attempting to labor more in the outdoors with the fresh air, in the clean earth and surrounded by God's fascinating creation. Are you interested in rebuilding an old fashioned lifestyle consisting of a daily dose of gentle womanly labor?

A good start would be to spend at least thirty minutes each day in some form of physical, outdoor work:

Some ideas could be picking fruit from a bursting tree, purposely stretching your limbs to find that ripe tender piece and gently lowering it into a basket.

Perhaps you can do some foraging by taking a brisk walk in search of medicinal plants. Harvest your herbs by the bunches to be dried into teas and/or made into tinctures. Or use your findings to prepare a fresh, daily brew of herbal tea for your family. You can call the moments spent searching, your "tea time". Bring the children along!

For some of us it could be the useful act of hanging clothes to dry in the sweet summer sun!



Consider raking up leaves, pulling of weeds, sweeping the sidewalks, stacking up firewood, pruning, planting an herb garden, or even doing some decorative landscaping.

Last year I took over the lawn. My husband was struggling to keep it up during the busy harvest (when hay grows, grass grows!) so I adopted that old push mower as my own. Since our back yard is large, it takes me between 3-4 hours to complete. In the summer heat I am exhausted and sweaty, but it feels so good! I listen to inspirational music and the process is very therapeutic. (It is also toddler friendly since at the time, my little nephew was with us, and it kept him busy playing "run away from the mower" the entire time.)

Let us look around and see what we could be contributing with our hands that will in turn, contribute to the health and happiness of our body, soul, and ultimately our future.

"Industry has a physical blessing; limbs strengthened by exercise, and sinews braced by exertion; every organ performing its legitimate duty, and kept in its appointed office; the blood circulated by motion, and the joints pliant from use; disease repelled by internal vigor; appetite created by the calls of increasing strength; rest rendered welcome by previous labor; sleep becomes acceptable after busy working..."

  ~ The Royal Path of Life, 1882

{See part one , part two, part three, part four and part five of this series.}

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Homestead Barn Hop, Amaze Me Monday, Monday's Musings, Marriage Monday, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Raising Homemakers, Make Bake Create, Wise Woman Link Up, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, The Scoop, Coffee and Conversation, So Much at Home, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Hearts for Home Thursdays, Growing in Grace Thursdays, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Simple Meals Friday, Cultivate Nourishing, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. Paintings by George Faulkner Wetherbee, Julien Dupre, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Daniel Ridgeway Knight.