Friday, Sep 20, 2013 "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." Proverbs 20:4 William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry, became one of the most popular authors in America at the turn of the last century. He wrote for years, but his literary career really took off from a most unlikely place—prison. Porter had been convicted of embezzlement from the bank where he had worked in Texas (although there is some evidence that it was not theft but carelessness that led to the loss of funds) and was sentenced to five years in prison. While there, he wrote and published some of his best-known stories, establishing himself as a premiere author. In his interactions with others, O. Henry displayed the same wit that filled his stories. Once he attempted to get a royalty check from a New York publisher without success. He went to the office to try to collect in person, only to be told that the person who signed checks was not available because of a sprained ankle. “My dear sir," O. Henry said, "does he sign them with his feet?" When we are trying to avoid doing something we don’t want to do, almost any excuse will suffice. It’s much easier to plow a field on a cool day than a hot one, yet Solomon points out that a lazy man will even use the cold as his excuse not to work. Rather than looking for reasons to avoid the tasks that are set before us, we should be faithful and diligent about our work. Success at making excuses may avoid temporary effort, but it leads to more pain in the end. When a sluggard goes hungry, then he has time to regret his failure to work when he should have done so. God has established rewards for work that can never be obtained by making excuses. Today’s Proverbs Precept: Rather than making excuses, work diligently and you will reap the rewards of labor.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 10:22:50 +0000
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