Mormons believe in work

There are a lot of different ways we could capture a bit about how work is an important part of Mormon life and beliefs.

For example, we could quote prophetic teachings about the importance of work, such as this one from D. Todd Christofferson, a prophet and apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

A consecrated life is a life of labor. Beginning early in His life, Jesus was about His Father’s business (see Luke 2:48–49). God Himself is glorified by His work of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children (see Moses 1:39). We naturally desire to participate with Him in His work, and in so doing, we ought to recognize that all honest work is the work of God. In the words of Thomas Carlyle: “All true Work is sacred; in all true Work, were it but true hand-labour, there is something of divineness. Labour, wide as the Earth, has its summit in Heaven.” 3 

God has designed this mortal existence to require nearly constant exertion. …  Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, aspires.

We could share posts written by Mormon women for our website about work — work in the home, in the workforce (such as this post about Mormon scientists), in non-profit efforts (for example, read these two posts about two Mormon women changing lives in Ethiopia).

But this post may be one of the funnest (and funniest) posts ever written on Mormon work — it’s a summary of a Christmas Eve work project: cleaning the church building. This is something Mormons do every week (twice a week, actually). As part of the principle of self-reliance, we take turns cleaning the entire church building. Sign-up sheets are passed around on Sundays, and families and individuals come together to keep our buildings clean. You’ll see that the work isn’t always done perfectly, but we do try. Hats off to Mormon Soprano for a great post!

Image created by Tamakawho, found via Wikimedia Commons