You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

How's going, Sprouts?

Today is September 5th, and it's the Feast of St. Mother Teresa, which is very appropriate for today.

And our topic is work.

So in the book of Genesis, chapter 2, verse 15, God put man in the garden, and he put him there to do two things.

One, to till it, to till the garden, and to keep it.

Tomorrow we're going to talk about the keeping part, but today we're talking about the tillet.

To till a garden, that's work.

That's where you get down the dirt and you make things grow in whatever form or fashion that requires, right?

So it might actually be plowing the field, putting holes in the ground for seeds,

covering that with dirt, watering those things, right? But that's actual labor. That's actual work.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 2428 says that in work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature.

That means that when we work, we are becoming what God created us to be.

It's a part of who we are as his creation.

But it's also really, really important for you as boys.

You see, you're special because you have this chemical in your system called testosterone.

And it drives you sometimes to be really aggressive or have energy or run around or do crazy things.

And that's all fine and good as long as we're obedient and as long as we direct our desire to do those things

toward God. Work is a great way to direct our energy toward God and serve others.

So that might mean doing our chores. That can include painting a house,

cleaning a toilet, brushing our teeth, sweeping a floor, vacuuming, making beds, washing windows.

I could go on, right? I mean, I got a pile of rocks in my backyard that my kids

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