Work or Worthless Pursuits

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread,

But he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.

                                                  Proverbs 12:11

I enjoy gardening. I have posted pictures of my fence around my garden. I often take pictures of the beautiful flowers that adorn the various flower beds around our house. I enjoy seeing my hard work of trimming, weeding, fertilizing, mulching, etc. produce beautiful flowers and yummy produce. This year has been a difficult year for some of my produce. Some of my produce has done pretty well. We had a drought at the beginning of the summer so I was dutifully watering every other day. I think I planted sunflowers three different times because the seeds I planted were not growing. I finally have some coming up, but I am not sure if they will be able to bloom before the frost of winter sets in. my strawberries, black and red raspberries, and blueberries have done pretty well. We have had some green beans and some peas so far. There is nothing like eating the produce from your own garden. I am thankful that there are grocery stores because we would starve if it were up to me to supply enough food to feed us throughout the entire winter.

Our Proverb today is similar to a Proverb we studied earlier, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” (Proverbs 6:6). The ant teaches us valuable lessons about working hard. You can go back and read that blog, Go to the Ant. The ant is motivated, plans ahead, glorifies God, and has busy hands.

A hard worker will have plenty of bread. The reason that the hard worker has plenty is because he is so busy working he does not have time for worthless pursuits. In America, we have become a nation that enjoys our leisure activities. However, we are not the first or the last people to enjoy our leisure. We could take a walk through history and read about all those that have gone before us that enjoyed their leisure. They enjoyed following “worthless pursuits.”

Is it wrong to enjoy leisurely activities? No. Is it wrong to have a hobby that we enjoy doing in our free time? No. The problem is when these leisure activities begin to consume us and cause us to disregard our duties and responsibilities.

First and foremost, do your leisure activities get in the way of spending time in God’s Word and in prayer? Does your job suffer because your focus is more on putting in your time so that you can enjoy your leisure activities? Does your family suffer neglect because you are too focused on your leisure activities?

There are pursuits that are sinful in and of themselves: Pornography, gambling, gossip, etc. No matter what these are sinful.

Video games, social media, internet browsing, and other technology driven activities have become addictive in our society today and though not evil in and of themselves they have become addictive and have caused people to waste inordinate amounts of time. These are the people that lack sense.

Our time is a non-renewable commodity. These moments that we are spending on these various pursuits will never be able to be done over. We will never recapture those moments.

With the 24 hours per day you have been given, what will you spend your time doing? Will you work hard? Performing your job to the best of your ability, caring for your family, ministering to the needs of others? Will you faithfully spend time in God’s Word and in prayer? Do you use your time in a sensible or nonsensible way? Someday, we will give an account for our actions. What will God say about yours?