Called to Work in His Vineyard

My son, like all five year olds, has a short attention span.  If I ask him to clean up his toys, he will start and put a few away until he gets distracted and start playing with some or doing something else.  Pretty much every five minutes I will have to remind him to put away his toys.  To be honest it would be a lot easier to put them away myself but then he will not learn the valuable lesson about cleaning up after himself.  Dinner is the same way,  I will have to keep reminding him to “eat your food”.  It has actually started to become a joke at the dinner table because of the number of times I have to remind him to keep eating.

But I have realized that he is not the only one with a short attention span. I was listening to a talk by ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND from the April 2012 General Conference entitled: The Laborers in the Vineyard  He starts out by saying:

I wish to speak of the Savior’s parable in which a householder “went out early in the morning to hire labourers.” After employing the first group at 6:00 in the morning, he returned at 9:00 a.m., at 12:00 noon, and at 3:00 in the afternoon, hiring more workers as the urgency of the harvest increased. The scripture says he came back a final time, “about the eleventh hour” (approximately 5:00 p.m.), and hired a concluding number. Then just an hour later, all the workers gathered to receive their day’s wage. Surprisingly, all received the same wage in spite of the different hours of labor. Immediately, those hired first were angry, saying, “These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.”1 When reading this parable, perhaps you, as well as those workers, have felt there was an injustice being done here. Let me speak briefly to that concern.First of all it is important to note that no one has been treated unfairly here. The first workers agreed to the full wage of the day, and they received it. Furthermore, they were, I can only imagine, very grateful to get the work. In the time of the Savior, an average man and his family could not do much more than live on what they made that day. If you didn’t work or farm or fish or sell, you likely didn’t eat. With more prospective workers than jobs, these first men chosen were the most fortunate in the entire labor pool that morning.Indeed, if there is any sympathy to be generated, it should at least initially be for the men not chosen who also had mouths to feed and backs to clothe. Luck never seemed to be with some of them. With each visit of the steward throughout the day, they always saw someone else chosen.But just at day’s close, the householder returns a surprising fifth time with a remarkable eleventh-hour offer! These last and most discouraged of laborers, hearing only that they will be treated fairly, accept work without even knowing the wage, knowing that anything will be better than nothing, which is what they have had so far. Then as they gather for their payment, they are stunned to receive the same as all the others! How awestruck they must have been and how very, very grateful! Surely never had such compassion been seen in all their working days.It is with that reading of the story that I feel the grumbling of the first laborers must be seen. As the householder in the parable tells them (and I paraphrase only slightly): “My friends, I am not being unfair to you. You agreed on the wage for the day, a good wage. You were very happy to get the work, and I am very happy with the way you served. You are paid in full. Take your pay and enjoy the blessing. As for the others, surely I am free to do what I like with my own money.”

I have heard this parable many of times before but this time it has taken a special meaning.  I realized that some of the laborers that the Savior call each hour were the SAME people.  They were called to the work and then after a while got distracted and started to do other things.  I realized that I was one of these Laborers.  The Lord has been very very patient with me.  He has called me again and again and will keep calling me back to the work.  I just need to listen and follow Him.

Just like my five year old son, I am doing the best I can right now--even if I do get distracted sometimes and I am still making a lot of mistakes. Just like my son I have a loving Father who cares enough for me to let me do the work so that I can grow and develop and become more like my Father.