Teaching Work Ethics and Morals

Thank God Every Morning

Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know. ~Charles Kingsley



Work and Self-Reliance

by Heber J. Grant and other exemplary leaders

“What man wants is not talent, it is purpose; not power to achieve, but the will to labor.”
~Lord Bulwer Lytton

“Purposes, like eggs, unless they are hatched into action, will run into decay.”
~Samuel Smiles


Heber J. Grant had “the will to labor: in his spiritual endeavors as well as his temporal pursuits. He was an untiring worker as a father, a gospel teacher, and a special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. All aspects of his life reflected a principle he often taught: “The law of success, here and hereafter, is to have a humble and a prayerful heart, and to work, work, WORK.”


I have never seen the day when I was not willing to do the meanest [or lowliest] work, (if there is such a thing as mean work, which I doubt) rather than be idle.”

Arise, therefore, and be doing, and the Lord will be with you.
~ 1 Chronicles 22:16


I have found nothing in the battle of life that has been of more value to me than to perform the duty of today to the best of my ability; and I know that where young men do this, they will be better prepared for the labors of tomorrow. . . .


Every young man who will endeavor to employ all his time, never stopping to count the amount of compensation he is to receive for his services, but rather be inspired with a desire to labor and learn, I promise, will achieve success in the battle of life.


It is an easy thing to throw a dollar to a man, but it requires sympathy and a heart to take an interest in him and try to plan for his welfare and benefit. And it is a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ, now, as it always has been, to help every man to help himself— to help every child of our Father in heaven to work out his own salvation, both temporally and spiritually.
~Heber J. Grant


My experience has taught me, and it has become a principle with me, that it is never any benefit to give out and out, to man or woman, money, food, clothing, or anything else, if they are able-bodied and can work and earn what they need, when there is anything on earth for them to do. This is my principle and I try to act upon it. To pursue a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers.
~Discourses of Brigham Young, 274

And what would ruin a community would ruin a state, and I might incidentally remark, a nation also.


We are going to instill in the minds of the people as far as possible that statement by Brigham Young. . . to the effect that it was his policy not to give anybody anything unless he earned it; that people must do something to earn that which they receive. Nothing destroys the individuality of a man, a woman, or a child as much as the failure to be self-reliant.


I am a firm believer that work does not kill anyone, but that laziness does kill a man at an early age.
~Heber J. Grant


Dinner Talk on Teaching Work Ethics and Morals

1. What can we do in our families to ensure that work is a ruling principle in our lives? In what ways can parents teach their children to work?

2. How can we find dignity in all the work we do? What can we learn or gain from work even when it is unpleasant or disagreeable?

3. Why is it important for us to work for what we receive? How can failure to be self-reliant affect us individually? As families? In our communities and nations?

4. How does work affect the mind, body, and spirit? What have you learned from people who have continued to work throughout their lives?



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