We returned from Florida yesterday, and this morning I found the normally delicious fruit on our cherry tree was now squishy and moldy. I missed it – the peak time for harvesting!
This didn’t surprise me, though. I’d made the choice to risk wasting the food because of the higher value I place on time with my family. (And yes, I did invite a couple sweet ladies and some scrappy little boys to come get cherries while I was gone!)
“Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son” (verses 4-5).
If I don’t work, I’ll have poverty. If I am diligent and productive, I’ll have wealth. This proverb says clearly that being lazy when it’s time to harvest is a disgrace. I think that God multiplies the benefits of our labors when we are diligent in our work. And I want his blessing more than anything.
“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it” (verse 22).
Have you asked a lazy person to do something for you? It can be pretty annoying.
“As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so are sluggards to those who send them” (verse 26).
The dictionary says the word sluggard means a lazy person, a lay-about, lounger, good-for-nothing, slacker, idler, loafer.
“The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor” (verse 15).
Diligence leads to wealth, which leads to a higher level of security (a fortress). Now I’m motivated to go to work!
by Kathy Sheldon Davis
kathysheldondavis.com 