Read
30I once walked by the field
and the vineyard
of a lazy fool.
31Thorns and weeds
were everywhere,
and the stone wall
had fallen down.
32When I saw this,
it taught me a lesson:
33 Sleep a little. Doze a little.
Fold your hands
and twiddle your thumbs.
34Suddenly poverty hits you
and everything is gone!
Reflect
Each of us is in charge of tending to what God has put before us. From our homes to our jobs to our families, sometimes the work to maintain these areas of our lives is relentless. There are days when I wake up and my to-do list immediately starts rolling through my mind like the credits of a movie. Anxiousness builds in my stomach the longer the credits roll and within minutes I’m feeling overwhelmed. An exhaustion takes over and the only thing I feel like doing is pulling the covers over my head and going back to sleep.
It’s on these mornings that I have to take a breath and remind myself that God’s in control. I don’t have to worry about the list of tasks that need to be accomplished because he will walk me through it. By going through the day with a “first-things-first” attitude, focusing on one task at a time, I suddenly find myself at dinnertime with a long list of accomplishments and a happy, light heart.
When we are overcome with life’s hectic demands, it’s important to maintain our focus and rely on God to walk us through them, step by step. The alternative is throwing our hands up in defeat, but if we do this too often we can find ourselves in a situation like the vineyard owner who dozed a little and twiddled his thumbs. Eventually he found his life in shambles. It’s our duty to take care of what God has blessed us with. Through him there is no task too great and “defeat” is simply not in our vocabulary.
Respond
Heavenly Father, thank you for being our strength day in and day out. Help us to keep our focus on you and cultivate a heart of thankfulness so that we may rise each day with joy and take good care of what you’ve put before us. Amen.
Julie Fitz-gerald
Julie Fitz-Gerald is a freelance journalist, writer and editor based in Uxbridge, Ontario. She has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Ryerson University and writes about diverse topics from faith to food to clean water. As a regular contributor to Faith Today, as well as numerous trade publications, she is inspired by the stories she gets to tell. Julie’s business has grown over the years to include corporate writing and editing services, ghost writing and book editing.