Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 197 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Proverbs 6:6-11 Lessons for Daily Life #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 198 of our Trek, and for this week, we will stay at camp digging for nuggets of wisdom as we continue our exploration into the book of Proverbs, starting with Chapter 6. Yesterday we explored verses 1-5, and today we will explore verses 6-11. If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Saturday Paula and I were able to finish up with a few Christmas decorations in the house which turned out simplistic but are a nice touch. The remainder of the day was spent working on financial transactions for our Arizona construction project.  The project is significant in size, and we are catching up from a delay due to computer issues on the site.  Although we initially had set aside the day for 2016 business planning, this project was certainly a top priority for Saturday. I am trying to learn the lessons from Proverbs 16:9, "We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps..."

As we enjoy the time at camp and around the campfire today, let’s start digging for those precious nuggets of wisdom as we explore Proverbs Chapter 6:6-11. This chapter in Proverbs is referred to as…

Lessons for Daily Life

Today I will read this segment, and then we will dive deeper into our exploration.

6 Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones.

Learn from their ways and become wise!

7 Though they have no prince

or governor or ruler to make them work,

8 they labor hard all summer,

gathering food for the winter.

9 But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep?

When will you wake up?

10 A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest—

11 then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;

scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

Now let’s dive into the individual verses starting with 6-8.

6 Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones.

Learn from their ways and become wise!

7 Though they have no prince

or governor or ruler to make them work,

8 they labor hard all summer,

gathering food for the winter.

As Christians, you should work at the tasks that God has given to you. You might have a job or work for yourself. You might stay at home and take care of your families. You might work for a church or other non-profit organization. Regardless of what you do, it is your ministry before God, and you should work on it with your full attention and do your very best. Whatever we do, we should not be lazy.

Solomon writes about the work ethics of ants. If you have ever studied how ants work or had an ant farm when you were young, you understand how very hard they do work. Ants work together in groups with no discernable leader except the instinctive behavior God made them with. They are wise because they store food. They do not waste their time, and they are very industrious.

Dealing with lazy people is as old as creation.  In 2 Thessalonians 3:10-13, some Christians refused to work. The church gave food to them. Paul told the church not to do this. "Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: 'Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.' Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn thei...