A Contrast between two types of men

Proverbs 20:4

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Often in Proverbs Solomon is showing us a contrast between two types of men, the slacker, and the man who works his land.  In that day much of the means of making a living was farming, the sluggard or slacker was considered a person of little worth.  He was a person who could not be counted on and would never sit at the gate with the elders.

 But today we do not refer to people as a sluggard, but lazy or a loser, maybe a loafer, or freeloader, but all of the above are one in the same and our society sees them as branding or offensive terms.  King Solomon was not into political correctness and called it as he saw it, and that is so refreshing.

King Solomon talked about a sluggard or the lazy 24 times in Proverbs, and we will examine some of the verses.  Proverbs 6:6-11, “Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.  Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.  How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”  Now ants are a pain and especially fire ants, but have you ever stopped to consider the ways of an ant?  I have, and those little critters know how to work, and they can carry a load much more significant than their body weight.  

I shared that my dad and mother were giving my brother and I jobs to do without pay at a very early age.  If I wanted money it required me to pick up coke bottles off the sides of roads, and we got 2 cents for each one that we took back to the store.  If someone was foolish and discarded a milk bottle, they were worth a nickel, and that was outstanding spending money.  Dad never told us to sit and watch the ants, but he did tell us anything worth having was worth working for.

In Proverbs 10:4-5, we have these insights; “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.”  What is happening in today’s families is a disgrace, when a son has never done any work up to the age of 18-23, and we expect them to go to work and make a living, marry someone and grow up and be a man of integrity.  What have you as parents done; trained up a sluggard?  I’ve yet to see a man who sits on his butt and is not trained how to work, make anything of himself.

So parents maybe little Johnny who has no talent for sports, but you are pouring money into select sports, you might be wise to let him spend time working, at an H.E.B. as I did as a boy.  High School participants in Baseball in the USA is around 491,790 boys and these are the numbers that get to play college ball, 34,980 that is only 7.1%, maybe not such a good investment of time and money.  What about basketball, the numbers are larger 550,305 and only 18,712 play in college are 3.4%?  And now the one dad's love to see, their sons play football 1,005,382 and to my surprise 73,063 play at some level of college but it is only 6.9%.

As a parent, I often ask myself what would be successful parenting, and I came up with the following, to train them to be a person of worth to God and others.  To teach the value of honesty and be a person of integrity and I’ve enjoyed seeing those values not only in my daughter but also in my grandsons.  No one does well at the finish line unless they have been trained that life is not fair, God is love, and one must save for the storms, for each life has its share.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice