A few years ago, I wrote an essay for the Farm Bureau contest in my county. The phrase I was to write about was, “Don’t cut corners.” I won the contest surprisingly. I was thrilled at the accomplishment and put the certificate in my homeschool portfolio. Writing that essay helped me to remember, years later, that shortcuts have a great possibility to lead to either calamity or complete disaster.

A building can’t stand without a foundation. A mathematical equation won’t come out right if you skip a step in multiplying the numbers. A wall won’t look nice if you don’t tape the trim before you paint it. These examples tell us that taking a shortcut to make a job faster and easier probably is not the wisest choice. Being diligent in our work is what God tells us to do, whether we’re doing laundry, cooking dinner, finishing tasks at work, or even doing homework.

If we take shortcuts, we most likely won’t do a very good job and will have to do the job over again or take extra time to fix it, causing delays in our work. Shortcuts may sound nice and easy, but can also direct us to dilemmas. This doesn’t mean that we should purposely take the long ways of doing things. It means that you should do the job right, even if it takes much time, work, and effort, remembering that if no one sees your hard work you can still know that the Lord saw it and smiled to see that you did the job right.

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What do you think about cutting corners?

Was there ever a time when you took a shortcut and regretted it?

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Megan Joy