Get a real job!

Recently, someone near to me stated that she would never marry a mechanic. Mainly because of the grease on clothes and hands, but privately, I think it goes deeper. The sense that a man who works in a trade such as a mechanic, doesn't have a "real" job as does an accountant or doctor, a form of snobbishness if you will.. I felt annoyed with her comment and I had to mull it over. After all, often it is through moments like those that one learns so much about oneself...

My deceased first husband worked as a shift worker, often coming home with extremely dirty hands. Sometimes it was fibreglass splinters that stuck in his hands forming puss sores as they worked their way out of his skin. Sticking to his clothes and making laundering them a nightmare. Other times it was grease from repairing his concrete pump and later on concrete that even made it under his cuticles as he pumped the said concrete every day... pumping 6 days a week, repairing and maintaining said pump on Sunday.

My Chris has now retired but in his day, his hands have been hardworking and dirty as well. He was a mechanic working on road side assist. Another shift worker. And  I recall him telling me how his ex-wife would yell at him because of his dirty, greasy hands. Hands that kept her home so that she could look after their children...yet hands that in her sight, might just as well have been kept in his pockets!

Chris's son was also working as a roadside assist mechanic and his mother told him to give it up and get a "real" job. He, like his father, felt emasculated... depressed and a failure!

To be honest, I smarted at the inference that hard working men who get their hands dirty are not really working hard enough. I abhor the fact that these men will never earn enough or work hard enough to satisfy these women. Also, I feel the sting of rejection for them and the loss of respect. I at least know why her comment aggrieved me so much!

The Word says that a man is to look after his family and if he doesn't provide for them, he is worse than an unbeliever. It doesn't say that he is to strive to find his niche in employment or a career for which he is not suited or cannot attain. All honest work is honourable! Greasy hands are honourable as well, for they show a heart that is willing to toil and provide.

If one follows these women's erroneous thoughts, one has to conclude that Jesus Himself should have gotten a "real" job.... after all, He must have had calloused dirty hands in His work as a carpenter. But come to think of it, I don't think even His labours would have satisfied these women of lofty ideals!  

 © Glenys Robyn Hicks 

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Timothy 5:8