Fruitful or Fretful ?
“She considers a new field before she buys or accepts it – expanding prudently, and not courting neglect of her present duties by assuming others. With her savings of time and strength, she plants fruitful vines in her vineyard.” Proverbs 31:16 (Amplified Bible)Do you find yourself frazzled, over-scheduled, with too much to do? How about your children? Do they have plenty of time to rest and time for unstructured, relaxed play, or are their little lives as hectic and jam-packed as most adults?
Few people today seem to have much time to rest or relax. How many calm, rested people do you know? It’s sad to see the frantic, stressed-out lives that most people live today. Is this what God intended for His people? Hardly! In Psalm 23 our Shepherd leads us beside still waters. Even God Himself took the seventh day to rest. Do we?
But there are so many good opportunities out there, so many things to do and somehow they all seem important. What do we do in a world that keeps moving faster? Try harder to keep up? We’ve been doing that for years, and many people are just plain worn out.
I think we can find part of the answer in this verse from Proverbs 31. The “capable, intelligent and virtuous woman” (Prov. 31:10) expands “prudently, not courting neglect of her present duties by assuming others.” I like this Amplified Bible version of this text. It helps me understand more completely what the Lord is saying.
This woman thinks carefully and considers all of the ramifications before she buys a new field. Then she is wise and only expands prudently, if it will not cause her to neglect her present duties. She knows that to assume new responsibilities may cause her to neglect her current duties. So she does not take on anything new, does not expand, until she applies wisdom and carefully considers the choices before her.
The result? In the end, she saves time and strength and therefore her vines are fruitful. She does not run around trying to do everything and wear herself out (and her family, too!). She saves time and strength with her wise decisions so that what she does bears fruit.
In order to prudently make wise decisions, we will have to say “no” to some things. Many opportunities present themselves and the temptation is great to jump at them. There are many needs all around us and often we are asked to help. It is hard to say “no” sometimes. But unless we do, we will take on too much. The result? Some of our present duties will be neglected; we will grow weary and our work will not be fruitful.
Let us carefully consider each activity we take on. Why are we doing it? Will it cause us to neglect some other responsibility? When I examine my own heart, I realize that too often I agree to do things because friends have asked me to. I don’t want to disappoint them; they need my help.
One day in prayer, the Lord showed me that I was giving in to peer pressure. Don’t we tell our children to resist peer pressure? When people ask me to take on new responsibilities, I need to learn to prayerfully take it to the Lord and my husband, and consider what I would have to give up in order to have time for this new activity. Only after careful consideration could I give an answer: sometimes it might be “yes” but often it is “no”. This enables me to focus on the things the Lord has given me to do and to be fruitful at the tasks He has called me to do.
Look at your calendar; consider your days. Is there ample time with the Lord, with you husband, your children? Is there time to keep your home in order? These are our primary responsibilities and the unique roles that no one else can fill. We can only consider taking on additional duties when these responsibilities are faithfully fulfilled.
We all know how children get fretful when they are over-tired. When I take on too much and the pace of my days is frantic, I tend to get fretful, too. It’s hard for our work to bear good fruit if we’re exhausted and fretful much of the time. Let us carefully consider each of our activities and commitments and evaluate each opportunity that comes our way so that we expand prudently and do not over-extend ourselves or our family.
Copyright, 2007, Laurie Latour.
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