Proverbs 12

This is extremely fresh bread so I am excited to share it. It is more like old bread that now has become fresh again. But that doesn't really happen. It's more like in the past I LOVED Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, but over the past year or two I kind of forgot that I liked them. Recently I had one and now I can't stop trying to figure out ways to go to Wendy's to have another. Okay that's what this is like.

Proverbs 12:1 - "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid."

I really love it when a passage of scripture sounds like my friend Adam wrote it. Adam is full of wisdom and full of bluntness, like this passage. To think that every time I am corrected I immediately get defensive and try to avoid it. This is a necessary step for knowledge.

Proverbs 12:11 - "He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment."

Work is supposed to be hard. I know a lot of people (including myself) think we deserve to have any job of our choosing, but that is not the way it works. We are supposed to work from the sweat of our brow, that is the broken world that we live in. I am not saying don't go after the career you want, but I am saying don't chase fantasies. If you have to work a job to pay bills while doing something you are passionate about on the side, do it. But scripture is clear that if you chase fantasies without working the land you are lacking judgment.

Proverbs 12:24 - "Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor."

I love it when scripture cross references with other scripture. At first glance this passage kind of doesn't make any sense. Why would laziness end in slave labor? Glad I asked. This passage works well in light of Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." Another translation says "the borrower is slave to the lender." When you establish a lender/borrower relationship you are actually establishing a slave/master relationship. The sad thing is I know too many people whose master is Visa or American Express. I don't think that the people who named "MasterCard" were too far off.

So if debt leads to slavery and laziness leads to slavery then we can conclude that laziness and debt are connected. If you find yourself in a mound of credit card debt (like I was), you have to evaluate if laziness was a contributing factor why you got into debt, or why you are not out.