Day 43: Be Careful What You Wish For

The Prompt: Write a short story based on, "Do not be rash with your mouth and let not our heart utter hastily before God." Ecc. 5:1

Once there was a teenager who was tired of doing his chores.  They were bothersome to him.  Whenever he had any free time, he always had to wash the dishes or clean up his room.  His mother could always find something new for him to do, and whatever he wanted to do would have to wait.  He had a new video game that he had only been able to play twice in the two weeks he had gotten it.  His baseball card collection was in dire need of some reorganization.

One day, his mother, before she went to work, instructed her son to vacuum and dust the downstairs because the family was having company over for dinner that night. 

"There goes my afternoon!  It's like I have to pick between doing homework or doing something I want.  If I don't get any free time for myself, I'm going to go crazy!" he stomped to the closet to pull out the vacuum.  "I wish that I didn't have to do chores ever again!  I wish that God could just take them all away from me!"

The teen plugged in the vacuum and swept up the downstairs.  He finished just in time to weed the front yard before his mom came home and asked him to help set the table for dinner.  Once their company left, he regretfully did his homework and went to bed.

The next day, after he came home from school, he expected his mother to remind him to do the dishes or inform him the car should be washed.  However, she never said a thing.  When he asked if there was anything he needed to do, she simply answered, "Don't worry.  It's being taken care of."

He thought it was weird but didn't question it.  He finished his homework quickly and finally found time to play his video game.  The same thing happened the next day and the next, and the day after that.  Every time he asked if chores needed done, his mother told him not to concern himself with it.  He even looked out for things to do, but the house always looked clean.  His mother or father didn't do anything.  It was a miracle!

With the house and yard perpetually clean, the teenager was able to have much more free time on his hands.  No stress, no worries, just fun.  He soon got all he wanted to do done and made a new list of things he wanted to do in the past but had never seemed to have time to do before.  In the summertime, chores still failed to exist.  He could do whatever he wanted.  It was almost too much freedom, but he wasn't concerned.

All good things come with a price.  The following school year, he started goofing off more than studying because it was too easy to ignore his work.  His grades started failing.  Since he wasn't doing any physical labor and sat in front of the TV on most weekends, he became lazy.  He wouldn't pick up after himself, and he grew fat.  Eventually, he flunked his junior year of high school.  He had to repeat the grade twice because he couldn't grasp the concept.  When he finally did graduate, four years late, he couldn't get into a good college because his SAT scores were too low.  He couldn't find a stable job because he was shiftless and lacked knowledge and experience.  His life was a failure.

Let this be a cautionary tale.  Even though you may want something, that doesn't mean you should have it.  God makes you go through things for a reason, good or bad.  Hard work and sacrifice always pay off in the end.