THIRTY-TWO
"I took pride in my work... the expectation was that we would all go to college and pay
our own way, no questions asked."
On p. 32 of Going Rogue Sarah is discussing her family's "work ethic." She writes:
"In between sports and school we worked. I cleaned a small local office building by myself, every Sunday night, through all four years of high school, for $30 a weekend. I babysat. I waitressed. My sister and I picked strawberries in the mud and mosquitoes at Dearborn's local farm for five cents a flat.
"We inventoried groceries on dusty shelves at the local store. We swept parking lots to raise money for our next softball tournament and raked leaves to make money for trips to basketball camps and track competitions in Texas. We did not think to ask our parents to pay our way. I was proud to be able to buy my own running shoes and sports equipment.
"I took pride in my work, and my parents took pride in my working. The expectation was that we would all go to college and pay our own way, no questions asked."
As we comtemplate these admirable lines, I think we may consider two different "orders (levels) of economy," if I may so put it. There is the economy of the market place, and there is the economy of the spirit. What has become of the money that Sarah worked so hard to earn so many years ago? Long gone; spent on worthy and worthwhile causes, but gone decades and decades ago.
But what about the "wages" that accrued to her character and soul as a result of these labors of long ago? These wages remain to this day; in fact, they are earning interest, and making her rich and wealthy in spirit. And they are enriching not Sarah alone, but the entire American Republic, as we all benefit from the full flowering of her noble, intrepid character, the foundations of which were laid on those "dusty shelves" and in those muddy and mosquito-ridden fields of so long ago!!
Sarah herself has undoubtedly lost the memory of many or most of the details of those days and evenings of devoted sweat and sacrifice. But the Lord, who has assured us that every hair on our heads is numbered, He has not forgotten her staunch devotion to duty and to an ideal of selfless striving.
Did the young Sarah, through the winding course and trail of those long minutes and hours and days and months and years of hard and lonely labor, fully realize that she was exerting herself, not just for the passing and transient few dollars that she earned in the immediacy of those moments, but for the enrichment of her own precious soul, and ultimately, for the glory of her country? Probably not. But the Lord of Times and Purposes saw/sees all this.
Because she was "faithful in a few things," she will soon, as we ardently believe and hope, be called to the stewardship of far greater things.
Well and wisely has she worked, the faithful Daughter of the North Country...and our soon-to-be President!!!
