pouring concrete – Stephanie Richey Art

Today I had the opportunity to go to work with my husband. He was pouring a slab in preparation for building a garage. Not a huge building, so we just poured it as a family rather than hiring a concrete company to pour it.

As we finished up I started to think about what a great opportunity my kids have to work at something so tangible. As this job progresses, as well as any other jobs we’ve had, we have the opportunity to see progress as we go along, big progress, and it’s great for the kids to see that through hard work, great things can be accomplished.

I love the building industry. I also love the art industry, and there are so many more hands on industries that people work in, crafts men and women who create things, things we can gauge progress and accomplishment by. Often when we think about jobs, we encourage our kids to go to college, get a degree, get a desk job that pays well, and then live out their lives at a desk because it pays well.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this kind of a job, but I think we don’t give credit to all the skilled people who keep our infrastructure working whether through building buildings, building and repairing cars, taking care of garbage, growing food, building furniture, cleaning, etc. Much of which doesn’t require much of a college education, but does require quite a bit of training and an immense amount of skill for some. It takes a huge variety of people with an even greater variety of skills for our world to go round.

Finished pouring concrete slab and tenting to keep the rain off.

As we finished up today I thought about the wages my kids make for helping out. Sometimes it’s not a huge amount, depends on the job. But the skills they have acquired as their dad has taught them about building and so many other things, will stick with them as they go through life. They will be able to take that knowledge, whether they directly or indirectly use it, and at the very least appreciate the work that goes into so many different things objects, buildings, vehicles, whatever.

They have also learned though the years what an honest days work is, and that with an honest days work comes an honest days wages. Wages they can be proud of and see what went into that pay. When the customer comes out and compliments the work, or better yet, passes our name on to friends and family, it shows that wages aren’t all that come from doing the job well.

It’s been a productive day. My husband is still sitting at the job waiting for the concrete to be ready to pour trowel. The kids are at home relaxing, knowing they did a great job. I am appreciating the great helpers they are, the great man my husband is, and the jobs we have to pay the bills.

Today was the day for the hanger slab. Concrete was poured, a lot of concrete, and the finish work is still being done as I write this post. But it is the first step in what should be a building that will last for many years if it’s well taken care of.

As the concrete was being poured today, a message came on my phone about an opportunity I have to teach about the Seminary program to the adults in my Ward at Church this Sunday. I will be team teaching with a Seminary teacher from Wasilla, and the section of scripture that we will be presenting comes from Matthew 7:24-27 about the Wise Man and the Foolish Man. I thought getting that message today was very fitting and it got me to thinking about foundations.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to work on many foundations with my husband. I have learned a few important lessons about building a sure foundation. The first and most important thing that can be done to make sure the foundation of a house is sure, is to make sure what’s under the foundation is also sure. There can’t be mud, topsoil, or debris of any kind. There needs to be well drained, compacted sand and gravel so that when the ground freezes, the stuff underneath everything doesn’t have any moisture and won’t freeze and heave. Likewise in our lives we need to make sure that what is at the core of our belief system is sure, and the surest core belief is in God and His Son Jesus Christ. They are the same yesterday, today, and forever, and we can rely on the counsel that they give us, the commandments that they ask us to obey, and the blessing and consequences based upon our actions. They don’t vary. When our hearts are full of anger, hatred, revenge, etc. rather than love of God, love of neighbor, and obedience, our foundation becomes shaky, and it won’t take much for even a small hiccup in our lives to cause us to stubble and possibly fall.

Strengthening the foundation properly is a must. The use of rebar is critical to the concretes ability to maintain strength. When people scrimp on rebar, place it incorrectly, or totally leave it out, it doesn’t take a lot of shaking or weather to start breaking things apart. Likewise, we need to increase the strength of our solid foundation by putting forth the effort to maintain a relationship with God and become more like the Savior. Reading our scriptures, studying the scriptures, praying with sincere intent, and practicing what we learn so that we can become, are all steps that create a stronger foundation. Gratitude toward God, to His blessings, gratitude for His Son, these are critical in our ability to stay strong. It is through gratitude that we recognize God’s very prevalent hand in our lives on a daily basis. These things add strength to our foundations.

Science amazes me. They have learned how to add things to concrete to do all sorts of things with it. Today, the concrete layer asked my husband to have the concrete company add a chemical that makes the concrete runnier so that it flows better, but you don’t add any extra water. Adding too much water to concrete thins it down too much and makes the concrete weaker. Likewise, if we water things down, always looking for the easiest path, the one with the least resistance, the one that takes the least amount of effort on our part while we still think we are maintaining our beliefs, is making us weak. Our muscles don’t grow unless they are worked, likewise, our relationship with our Heavenly Father and our Savior doesn’t grow as well when things are lazy and easy. We need to learn to look for the stretch, look for the challenge, and be willing to hit it head on so that we don’t get watered down. Because being watered down makes us less resilient and weakens our foundation.

Those are some of the things I was thinking about today as I pondered on concrete and foundations. I love how the world around us can teach us so much! I hope you have the opportunity to strengthen your foundation, and that you take that opportunity and use it to do just that, create strength and resilience within you.