Working Hard or Hardly Working?

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I've been reading through Proverbs, taking one chapter a week with some friends. We are on Proverbs 10 this week and I was reflecting on the following two verses this morning.

Proverbs 10:4-5:

4 Lazy hands make a man poor,
but diligent hands bring wealth.

5 He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son,
but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

How we doing on working hard in our homes? Are we being diligent about taking care of our house? At the end of the day can we look back and know that we've done our best for the Lord. Are we gathering "crops" and producing fruit in our homes?

To be honest, there are many times when I seem to hardly work. Oh, I will do the basics (cooking, laundry, school) but I do allow quite a few time wasters to gobble up my productivity.

One of the biggest is the computer. The other day, I realized that I had sat in this chair for almost two hours!! It is so easy to get caught up in email, different websites and "research" that your time slips away. Even though, many days it's only 15 minutes here or there, it does add up. I'm sure there are days when the amount of time is much more than 2 hours if you add up all the 15 minutes.

I did some calculations and if I spend 2 hours a day (that is low-balling it), 7 days a week, 52 weeks per year sitting here, that is 728 hours or the equivalent of 4.3 weeks parked in front of the computer! YIKES!!!!! Think of all the things that could be accomplished with that time. How many projects could be done? How much more time could be spent focusing on my family?

Let's be diligent with the time we have. There are so many things to be done for the Lord. Let's not look back on our lives and wish we had done things differently. Let's be faithful stewards of our days!

Comments

  1. StephMay 21, 2009 at 8:30 AM

    You must have been reading my mind with this post. God has been speaking to me a LOT about this very issue. So, for the past several days I've been limiting my online time!
    Thank you again for the reminder! God is amazing in the ways (and how often) He is bringing this to my attention!

    ReplyDelete
  2. NickiMay 21, 2009 at 8:42 AM

    Wonderful post, and a much-needed reminder on a lazy day like today :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lisa @ Life with 4!May 21, 2009 at 10:06 AM

    There are many time-wasters in our lives these days, aren't there? With the good weather just around the corner for summer, it should be easier to keep busy.
    Thanks for the scriptural reminder, Terri.

    ReplyDelete
  4. NadineMay 21, 2009 at 1:31 PM

    This is so true. It is amazing how quickly time past while in front of the computer and then at the end of the day you realize that you have not accomplished everything you wanted! Thank you for reminding us of that Terri!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 21, 2009 at 4:33 PM

    Great reminder, Terri! Thank you!

    Have a blessed day,
    Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  6. AngelaMay 22, 2009 at 5:52 AM

    Ok
    thats me back to the housework NOW then!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. DianneMay 23, 2009 at 2:50 PM

    This post talks about some of the reasons that made me stopped blogging. I just felt that I had too many other things to do and better ways to serve the Lord then blogging. I enjoyed reading the blogs of others and appreciated the friendships that I made but couldn't justify the amount of time that creating a blog and posting on it every day ate up.

    So I decided to stop because it was interferring with my getting things done in my home and time spent with the Lord.

    Satan would love to keep us from doing God's Work and from our relationship with Him.

    Thanks for the reminder, Terri.

    ReplyDelete

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