Looking at this short section, there is a theme that jumps out to me.  As we read these verses the warnings against giving a pledge for someone, against slothfulness, and against wickedness in general, the theme that jumps out to me is the idea of not taking life seriously enough.  Some people live life like it is never going to end, like there is no urgency, and like there is always tomorrow.  And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s healthy to live life in a hurry or doing what I so often do (and which I want to improve upon) and always be living out in the future, failing to enjoy the moment.  So, we must live with a proper balance between being future-focused and present in the here-and-now.  But, the author is choosing to offer some encouragement for living with intentionality here; living with a mind on the future.  The connecting reason to warn against these issues of taking loans, against being slothful, or against wickedness is that each of these pulls our future potential into the present, just like spending our retirement savings on a car in our 50s.  It feels good, it may not be immediately costly to us, and we may forget that we ever did it...until the day that we need those dollars to live comfortably.  Borrowing money to spend today is just that...spending future income.  The more future income we’ve spent, the more we are working as a slave in the future; a slave to today’s spending.  Slothfulness sows seeds of low productivity in the future.  Low productivity leads to low income, or lack of marketable skills, or lack of production in another sense.  Low production means low means of enjoyment.  And with wickedness, we will reap what we sow in this sense as well...live wickedly today, damage our reputation, tarnish our name and our trustworthiness, and we won’t hav any leverage in the future.   Without trustworthiness and a good reputation, who is going to help me out in a time of need?  Who will give me the opportunity to do something that can beneficially change my life forever if I have crossed them or burned them in the past?

I think a great connection with today’s reading is this question I continue to ask myself daily while we are reading these Proverbs; “Today, have I taken a step forward or a step back in my life?”.  I continue asking that each night when I put the phone on the charger before going to bed, and I think this question builds on that.  I could amend it to say, “Today, have I taken a step forward or a step back in my life?  Have I lived with intentionality?”.  And, as I go to bed, I can go to bed thinking about this, “What do I need to do tomorrow to take a step forward, to move towards being the person I want to be and living the life I want to live?”.

That’s a powerful idea.  Let’s live intentionally today...a great reminder from Proverbs 6 today.