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From the time I get up to the time the sun goes down, it seems like there is not enough time to accomplish all that needs to get done. I am home during the day with my children and also work outside of my home in the afternoon and some evenings. I promise you that I can clean my house top to bottom, like showroom condition, and within two days it can look like an embarrassment again. Sometimes, I feel so tired and distracted by all the things outside of my home that need to get accomplished that I just honestly don’t feel like cleaning or tending to my house.
When you don’t feel like doing something that should be done by you, and you give into your feelings and don’t do it, that’s called being lazy. I thought of a lazy person as someone lying around, not really hurting anybody – but at the same time not accomplishing much, either. However, I recently read a verse that changed my perception of being lazy:
Proverbs 18:9
A lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things.
Uh – wait. I thought being lazy around my house was a very passive thing. But if it is likened in the Bible to someone who destroys things, it all of a sudden seems very active to me. I could actively tear down my home from my laziness. It makes sense - whatever is not growing and becoming better is declining. That’s true for my home as well.
Here is the reason laziness is so active: Because if you are not working toward something good, your flesh will encourage you to replace that good work with destructive things. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 31 that as a godly woman tends well to her home’s needs, she avoids these destructive things:
She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat.
When we get lazy around our house, we start getting discontented. When we are busy improving our home, we don’t have time to think about being discontent! When we are lazy, we often fill our time with gossiping about others and what they aren’t doing right. Plus, we have extra time to look around and focus on everything we don’t have. That leads us to pity ourselves for all the things we are missing in our lives.
Romans 12:11
Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.
This is such a good exhortation. I can’t let myself think that I’m not harming anyone with my laziness. When I am lazy, I am not serving the Lord and I am not building up my home.
Am I feeling discontented with my life? I have found the remedy! Get to work on attainable projects to build up my home! Have I been feeling sorry for myself? I have found the cure for that, too! Work hard to improve my home life, and find ways to serve the Lord by serving others. Have I been critical of how others are living their lives? As I work hard around my home, I won’t have time to criticize how others are living!
Father God, thank You so much for showing me how destructive being lazy can be. I know You have ordained times for rest, but I also know that I can’t give into my feelings every day. I pray that You help me look for ways to work to improve my home. Please help me be a woman that looks well to my household and please help me refuse to eat the bread of idleness. Thank You so much for blessing the works of my hands as I use them to build up the home and family You have given me!