Sleeping In
Read Proverbs 6:1-35
6. Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!
7. Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work,
8. they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
9. But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up?
10. A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest
11. then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.
12. What are worthless and wicked people like? They are constant liars,
13. signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.
14. Their perverted hearts plot evil, and they constantly stir up trouble.
15. But they will be destroyed suddenly, broken in an instant beyond all hope of healing. Proverbs 6:6-15
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If there were a television show called Important Inventions That Everyone Takes for Granted, the series would no doubt feature a profile of the snooze button. This workhorse feature of the alarm clock gives many people those few, crucial, extra minutes of rest. Its value far outweighs its price! For those who love to sleep, the snooze button lets them make the transition to wakefulness a little more slowly.
Proverbs 6 contains some advice on sleeping in and its close cousin, laziness. Don’t sleep through this lesson.
Other proverbs in this chapter deal with the hazards of too much generosity and the consequences of scheming, displeasing God, and moral compromise.
Some days, a little extra sleep seems like a necessity—and to some people it actually is. But Proverbs warns us against sleeping in too much (Proverbs 6:10-11). Of course, God isn’t saying that people should never rest. He commanded the Jews to observe the Sabbath, a weekly day of rest and restoration. But he also knows that human beings find it easier to sleep in than to get up and work.
Take responsibility for getting up and starting your day. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you. Get a good night’s rest, but when the alarm goes off, be sure to get up and get to work.
