Work

"Opportunity is missed by so many because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

-Thomas Edison

I am excited about the New Year.  I have a lot planned.  I have a lot of hopes for a productive year.  And when I read the following quote, it more than spoke to me, it sang to me...

"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.”

"God has designed this mortal existence to require nearly constant exertion... By work we sustain and enrich life. It enables us to survive the disappointments and tragedies of the mortal experience. Hard-earned achievement brings a sense of self-worth. 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."
                                                                - D. Todd Christofferson

(Emphasis mine, because those were the parts that sang to me the loudest.)