By Reba Phelps
When a young lady reaches a certain age she is able to join the workforce in the form of a babysitter. During my youth I remember my sister babysitting and being paid a whopping fifty dollars a week. Back in the day this was a lot of money, especially when you did not have to pay room and board. It never failed that she would come home with horror stories about the children she watched, but as soon as payday rolled around, her memory became short.
Money talked.
Once I reached the age of accountability I soon launched my own babysitting and house cleaning business. I loved the little odd jobs that would pay just enough to buy a fresh pair of Keds tennis shoes. Our parents never really had much money so it also helped them when we could finance our own expenses. I always kept a side hustle with a small cash flow.
Once I became an adult and was planning a wedding, I realized that my meager salary would not finance a wedding of any sort. So, I returned to my roots and picked up a side hustle. I worked as an insurance agent during the day and as a Wal-Mart cashier at night and on weekends. The extra cash paid for a wedding dress, vail, and a few down payments on the photographer and wedding cake. After the wedding date passed, I kept the side hustle because I loved having the extra money.
Through the years I have sold makeup, worked at a pharmacy, a video store, a gas station, babysat children, and sold miscellaneous items online. As my daughters got older it became a little more difficult to keep an extra job. I didn’t want to miss too many moments of their life and time was passing quickly.
Plainly put though, I will always completely respect a side hustle and I am fairly positive that the phrase was named in honor of my hustle.
Now hiring! Help Wanted! Signing Bonus! Higher wages per hour! Apply now! These are all words that would make any reformed side hustler’s eyes perk up!
The multitude of signs you see around town simply speak for themselves. Everyone is hiring. Not only are these words visible in every local window but you can Google, “jobs in Natchitoches” and the website, simplyhired.com will tell you that there are 348 jobs available in the Natchitoches area alone. That is almost unheard of and it is so difficult to not schedule a new side hustle for every other weekend that my daughter is not home.
It is an employee’s market right now with the sad reality that no one wants to work.
When God created Adam and Eve he did not waste any time putting them to work. Barely out of the second chapter of Genesis, it is written that Adam’s job was to tend the garden and name all of the beasts of the field that God created. I oftentimes wonder if God micromanaged that request or if he let Adam have his creative control. And, did Adam ever get writer’s block while trying to come up with new names?
Nonetheless, for the first six days of creation, that is all that God did. Work. He created man to work. He created women to work. Proverbs 31 specifically talks about the virtues of a noble woman. All of the virtues have one common thread. They all revolve around labor and the fruits of your labor.
“She gets up while it is still night, she provides food for her family….and considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings.”
Earnings do not come without sweat equity. While I am paraphrasing… You can see that God places a high value on work ethic and so should we. He also tells us in Proverbs 16:27 that idle hands are the devil’s workshop. According to this scripture, even the devil works. But, our God has more tools in his workshop, he just expects us to pick them up and use them.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” – Colossians 3:23-24
