Go to the ant, O sluggard,
Observe her ways and be wise,
Which, having no chief,
Officer or ruler,
Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest.Proverbs 6:6-8 from New American Standard Bible
As opposed the verses focused on yesterday, pointing out you have to slow down a little, this one focuses on the fact you really need to act, and take care of yourself.
If you try to do everything yourself you will just get burned out, yet if you do nothing for yourself you are not achieving all you can.
At times I fall into this category of just allowing myself to drift with the current, yet this is not as natural for me as attempting to row across the ocean under my own power. For many, I see them just wanting to rely on the good will and fortune of other, your family, strangers, friends, government, or even an employer. Just happy with their life and never looking to the future or pushing to improve their life. This does not mean materially, but including physically, spiritually, socially, financially, mentally, ability to produce or help others, or other areas of their life.
Yes, these verses are in the specific terms of production and preparation for winter, yet you can have a winter in any area of your life.
If everyone in the world took this simple mindset we would not have “great national tragedies” like we “currently are” ….
If half the people of the world stored up resources, or focused on improving their personal situation in every aspect of their life, then when “winter” comes for the other half, more people would be prepared to help their neighbors (since social, or community is a part of your life).
The bottom line is you can only help people out of your strength. The minimum wage employee received money out of the strength of what the employer has. The employer receives time, out of the strength that the employee has. If the employer has more money, the employer has the ability to employ more people, pay the employee more, upgrade the facilities/systems or give/spend/invest is, which in turn creates more opportunities for others.
For me, this verse is encouragement to become stronger in the seven areas of life that I view the world from:
- physical
- mental
- spiritual
- social & community
- family
- personal finance
- production
Why?
You have to come up with that answer for yourself, it might be to have more stuff; it might be to gain peace, joy, happiness, or another feeling. It might be like me where I can help more people. You have to come up with your own why for each area of your life & you might not always have a why in a particular area — I find when I don’t (like physical at this moment) it is much harder to practice or improve in that area.
Part of the Proverbs Challenge series