Pray for Labor Day
Most of us think of Labor Day as the end of summer, back to school, and a long weekend for picnics, parties and picking up sale bargains.
But Labor Day as a holiday is about celebrating you – a yearly national tribute to the contributions that workers like you have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Labor Day is also an opportunity to pray and praise God for His blessing. Let’s reflect and renew what God has done.
From Labor Day to Labor Department
Labor Day was first celebrated in the 1880s by various cities and groups with parades and parties to honor the working people. In 1894, in response to a groundswell of support for a national holiday celebrating the nation’s workers, it was officially made a national holiday. Read more about the history of Labor Day here.
Less that ten years after America’s Labor Day was established, President William Howard Taft signed on the last day of his presidency (March 4, 1913) a bill establishing the Department of Labor as a Cabinet-level department. The next day William B. Wilson was appointed as the first Secretary of Labor by the newly elected president, Woodrow Wilson.
The purpose of the Department of Labor was and is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.
“Working for You”
Fast forwarding to Labor Day 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor is “Working for You” in a variety of ways, including…
- Free employment and training services and resources online and through more than 2,000 local American Job Centers covering every county in the United States.
- The Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Labor builds job club partnerships with faith-based groups, community organizations, and neighborhood leaders to better serve disadvantaged and underserved workers and job seekers.
Crossroads Career Partnership
Since 2011, we have been partnering with the USDOL and Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to help you find jobs, careers and God’s calling. For example…
- The Crossroads Career online dashboard features nearby American Job Centers for every zip code in America.
- We have been featured at the White House Forum on Job Clubs, as well as collaborated in USDOL Symposiums around the country.
- Several Crossroads Career member churches collaborated in the USDOL Job Clubs Evaluation study.
- Crossroads Career Network and its member church, Roswell United Methodist Church, hosted the release of the Evaluation Report. See video from U.S. Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez…Watch now.
Celebrate and praise God in Whom we trust for His provision of Labor Day. Pray for the men and women of the U.S. and state departments of labor. It is an honor to work with them to work for and serve you.
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The Crossroads Career group AT FBC in Jacksonville, Fl has been working with the Duval County American Jobs Center with those who are Unemployed, Underemployed and Misemployed in preparing them for gainful employment. We have worked together hosting Job Fairs and workshops and the American Job Centers have been a great asset in the process. This posting brings back many memories from my childhood and our children’s as we watched parades and enjoyed picnics and reflection on the work performed by our parents, grandparents, and so many others in laying the ground work for their future. So, as we celebrate this day, let us lift up those who are seeking God’s will for their lives and for those who so selflessly help them in the American Job Centers.