“Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep— So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:6-11 NKJV)
A misreading of the Scripture might convince us that work was the punishment for Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. Actually, they had been given the assignment to cultivate the soil before sin messed up paradise. It would be the toil and thorns, the sweat and weeds that would result from the curse.
Work has always had worth and been part of God’s design for us. When we work in our yard or we grow a garden, we are reclaiming a bit of Eden from this fallen world—redeeming it for God as His stewards. On our job, our motivation as the servants of God is not just a paycheck, but to glorify God. Whatever our vocation may be, it is a sacred calling and divine service rendered. There is dignity about it, when viewed this way.
Sloth is sin. When we are being paid to do a job, and we don’t put the effort in, we have stolen from our employer by taking money we haven’t earned.
The ant is our model. The industry of these little creatures is how they honor their Creator. Watch them work, and emulate them. Nobody ever saw a lazy ant.
Don’t be guilty of sloth. The sluggard can always find a reason to hit the snooze alarm—again and again. That is a formula for poverty. Let us teach a younger generation the worth of work. There are too many parasites who live on the government treasury or someone’s compassion—not because they can’t work, but they won’t.
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