Time to Stop Thinking & Start Doing
I have to get it out. This whole idea of finding an apprentice has been going around in my head and conversation for years.
It is one thing to have an employee who fills your labor needs for so much an hour. But an apprentice is a whole different consideration. Having an apprentice carries a moral element that makes me a little introspective. After all, once I say a person is an apprentice I take a certain amount of responsibility for his/her future success. After all, if you build a tower and it falls down the responsibility is yours, at least in part. So there is a real sense in which hiring an apprentice carries risk for the employer—for the master craftsman.
But there is the positive side as well. If I hire an apprentice I will have the special pleasure of training another person to do what I do and to earn a living doing honest work. I have a person I am (I believe) called to pray for, encourage, teach, and eventually set free to fulfill their own calling before God. Another family can be supported and children reared. Biblical morality, goals, and hope can be taught all in the same setting and, essentially, at the same time. For a Christian business owner this is an attractive arrangement—too good to pass by in my case. Just give me a chance Lord. I will make an honest effort at not mucking it up.