P31W: The Danger of Snoozing (Part 2)

Discipline. No one truly jumps for joy at the word. I mean, who actually likes training yourself to do something that your natural tendency in NOT to do? In the area of sleep and laziness, I could, and I will venture to say that you could, use a lot more discipline.

Proverbs 31:15 "She rises while is yet night and provides food for her family and servant girls."

Like I said in my previous post, "Who thinks of being virtuous when you are lying in bed?" The P31W is SO FULL of integrity that the time of the morning that she gets up is written down in the Bible to be modeled and praised. That amazes me. Is it possible that something as little as when we wake up can please the Lord? Will the Lord praise us for something so small? The Bible presents her as a woman to model because she awoke before the sun to care for others.

The Proverbs 31 Woman knows that God wants her to be diligent and not lazy. She knows that He judges them harshly and makes very strong promises to them.

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

Proverbs 13:4 The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

 Proverbs 15:19 The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.

There is danger in getting into the habit of staying up late and getting up late. We live to love and serve the Lord. Not sleep and be lazy. Notice in this last verse it compares the lazy to the righteous. That's a stout comparison. That is saying that the righteous WILL NOT BE LAZY! Therefore, we can conclude that in order to be righteous, you must not be lazy. God says that a lazy man in his bed is like a door on hinges.

I think it's a Chinese Proverb that says, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise." There is a lot more truth to that statement than we credit it for. And the Bible supports it! It talks of how prosperity comes to the righteous worker and poverty to the lazy man.

Now, this isn't saying that if you often get how from work at 11pm that you need to shoot happily out of bed at 5 the next morning. Each persons schedule and lives are different, so I'm not suggesting the "one-size-fits-all" way. But, we honestly need to examine ourselves.

Eg: If 8 hours if enough time for me to sleep, and I decide to go to bed at 2:00am in the morning, this probably means that I'm going to wake up at 10:00am. What are the hours of the day when I can serve people and Christ most efficiently? Is waking up at 10 going to encourage me to commit my day to the Lord in prayer, or will I have to run out the door just to get to school on time?

Personally, I like getting up around 6-7 every morning. It allows you to start the day fresh and on time with the rest of the world, I'm ahead of schedule and have time to spare. My problem is thus: I sometimes don't go to bed early enough to support that enthusiasm. If 8 hours is the ideal amount of sleep, then I need to go to bed at 10. I don't most times, so I end up with tired head-aches and cranky attitudes.

Try these questions: Am I indulging myself in sleep? Am I getting to little, so that I'm a crab and don't glorify God in the way I treat people? Am I being counterproductive?

Be realistic with yourself. Just because it's a Wednesday and you don't have anything to do until after lunch, doesn't mean that you should sleep until it's time to go. As with EVERYTHING in our lives we have to ask a determining question: "Is this pleasing to the Lord? Am I glorifying His name with something as mundane as my sleep schedule?" Perhaps you could even talk to your mom or a friend about how they view the way you sleep.

Sounds stupid, but then again, the Proverbs 31 Woman is noted in the GREATEST BOOK OF ALL TIME for the way that she scheduled her zzzzs.

Read this verse. If you cannot do everything in your life whole heartedly as unto the Lord, then something needs to change. But there is GOOD NEWS! There is a God, Jesus Christ, who will always help us to become like Him if we ask Him. And He is the ROCK that never changes!

Colossians 3:23-25 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism."