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A CHRISTIAN WALK MINISTRIES
Reverend Matthew & Mrs. Deborah Harper Copy righted material
LAZINESS Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth Proverbs 10:4 If a man will not work, he shall not eat. 2 Th. 3:10
“This Power-Water drink is great!!” Jill excitedly declared to her mother as she swooped into the kitchen. “Do you know it has several vitamins that gives you energy and keeps your body strong? Someone had a great idea and I’m sure they made a fortune with this new product”. Jill’s father, Edward, began to do a slow burn as he sat in his recliner thinking of all the profits he would not get because he did not act sooner. Edward thought of this idea several years ago and even developed a recipe for a vitamin enriched water drink almost identical to Power-Water. However, Edward never got around to applying for a patent for his recipe. It seems he could never find the time and energy to do the difficult and time-consuming research and file the, in Edwards words complicated and un-necessary, paperwork required to protect his recipe.
Laziness leads to poverty, Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Pr. 10:4 NIV. The demon of laziness had inflected Edward with lazy hands causing him to miss a great opportunity.
Investing our time wisely always pays handsome dividends. It was early autumn when I used our family garden to illustrate this notion to our young children. We worked hard in the spring tilling the soil, planting seeds, adding insecticides and fertilizers and pulling weeds as the garden grew. Slowly we began to see the results of all that hard work as the first buds slowly emerged. The summer rains coaxed out a dazzling array of color as a multitude of blossoms burst out from each plant. The garden produced an abundance of vegetables and we watched as each one grew throughout the season. We had enough vegetables to meet our needs and share with our neighbors. We were able to preserve some vegetables for the winter. We had diligent hands. In contrast, one of our neighbors, Mr. Ted, did nothing to prepare his garden and spent no time maintaining it. He simply dug holes, planted seeds and the garden was done. Not surprising, Mr. Ted got very little produce from his garden. Mr. Ted had lazy hands.
Life is like a garden; you have to invest much hard work in the early years of your life to get a good harvest in the latter years. Doctors, engineers, electricians, pilots, plumbers and lawyers discipline themselves to spend many of their early years attending schools and training. This is hard work requiring much sacrifice. However, in the summer of their lives their gardens (businesses/professions) begin to blossom and yield much fruit. They will have more then enough fruit to last them into the autumn and winter (retirement) years of their lives. They had diligent hands.
Laziness can and will greatly influence every aspect of our lives. Are we too lazy to spend time with our children showing them we care and helping them develop into well-rounded adults? Has the demon of laziness strapped us to our cozy recliners and molded remotes to our hands so we spend our lives mindlessly glaring at a television screen? We no longer have the opportunity to meet and talk to our neighbors when we drive home because we now have remote garage door openers. We just push the button, swish into the garage and push the button again closing the doors to the garage and to any neighborly relations. We may call this the benefits of modern conveniences, but bottom-line, it’s laziness. Half of our population is overweight from laziness. Children no longer mow the lawn because we have a yard person. These children miss the opportunities to learn the relationship between work and rewards and the value and satisfaction of earning a few dollars. Plus they miss the benefits of exercising their bodies while doing meaningful work.
Look at the ant, you lazy person, consider its ways and be wise! It has no boss, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lay there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man Pr.6: 6-11 NIV.
Laziness is a learned behavior like so many other things in our lives. Lazy parents, by example, influence their children to be lazy. Lazy parents that do not help, support and encourage their children in their school activities and homework, knowingly or unknowingly, contribute to their children failing in school. Without a solid education these young people will find it more difficult to succeed in life. Some people call laziness procrastination however, results are the same; things that need to be done don’t get done. The longer we put off doing what needs to be done the bigger the problem becomes. Four years ago you noticed paint was peeling in several areas around your house but you did nothing. Now you have to pay five times as much to repair the damage wood and repaint the house. You had a heated argument with a co-worker last year and you later discovered you were wrong and you planned to make things right by apologizing but you never got around to it. This week that same co-worker got promoted and is now your new boss. If you allow yourself to become too lazy to do the things required to live a productive and meaningful life you will surly have an existence marked only by a series of failures.
The demon of laziness is on a mission to destroy you by attacking your sense of self worth. If your laziness can prevent you from accomplishing anything positive in your life it will be hard to feel good about yourself. When this negative self image dominates your thinking you can’t have respect and love for yourself or others. This is exactly the position the demon of laziness want you to be in. From here it will be easy for him to drive you into a state of utter hopelessness and to ultimately crush your spirit and your will to live.
Get up and get busy. Resist the demon of laziness; don’t let him have the victory in you life. Never forget, for every demon we have the antidote, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ who sent His Holy Spirit to deliver us.
Controlling the demon of laziness: My Grandfather told me many years ago: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can and need to do today!” and it has proven to be very prudent. Since laziness is a learned behavior we can unlearn it. As in all things first go to God in prayer and He will guide you in effecting changes in your life. Here are some steps that will help you on journey to change:
This may sound simple, and it really is. Knowing the right thing to do usually is simple. The difficult part is having the self-discipline and perseverance to do what is simply right. The longer you work at it the easier and more rewarding it becomes. |
