I am really enjoying all your comments. Thank you for helping me out in this study! I particularly like the practical ideas you are sharing that will help improve your diligence. This is wisdom - to understand and apply.
We have looked at some examples of people who were not diligent at some point in their lives. This will happen to all of us at some point, unfortunately. Today your assignment is to share an example in the Bible of someone who was successful in diligence or because of diligence at some point in his/her life. Tell us why you particularly like this example and what application you can take away from it.
I choose the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31. She sticks in my mind because I have just finished a study on Proverbs with Toni, and I was impressed with the way she embodied all the lessons we learned in the chapters before she appears. She is herself an application of the book, diligence personified in an older, married, wealthy woman and mother. Why do I like particularly like her? I enjoy a challenge - and she certainly presents one. I love word pictures. And I like happy endings. She is all these things. When I see how the end of her life becomes such a big blessing to herself and all around her, it gives me motivation to continue when it doesn't seem my efforts are doing much good or are being noticed by those I love. Her diligence is day to day stuff. I'm sure she started with baby steps as a young bride and then a young mother. Now as she approaches the last part of her life, her baby steps have led her to a wonderful place with not only her family, but with God. Application? I'll choose just one principle I see in her life for now. I see that she accomplishes quite a bit during the day because she rises early and sets things in motion right away. Something I can do to facilitate that would be to start planning tonight for tomorrow. I could take out tomorrow's meat (if we are eating meat for dinner) tonight so it is ready to cook tomorrow at dinner time. Or I could start the crock pot first thing in the morning if it is beans or soup. I can make a list of what I need to accomplish before the girls come for school so I don't waste the time without meaning to. That list should probably include my daily Bible reading. I'm not a clear thinker first thing in the morning so these lists really help me focus. That's a little application that would take a lot of stress off me. To facilitate that, I probably should make it more of a priority to get to bed on time.
Doesn't that seem so small? But isn't diligence made up of small things done regularly? Baby steps. And does it seem like it's really not very spiritual? Ah, but it is very spiritual. It is working in the realm in which God has placed me to the best of my ability and in His strength. That brings Him glory.
Just so you know, I have made my prayer list. Now on to some organization...
2 comments:
The first Bible figure that came to mind for me was Joseph. When we first meet Joseph, he's a good teenager, but a bit spoiled and also very naive (and maybe even a bit cocky??) He's obedient to his father, but he has no idea what's in store for him or how much he's going to have to suffer over the next 20 years or so. But despite the wrongs that Joseph suffers, he doesn't lash out at God, he doesn't justify sinning because of all the bad things that happen to him and he gives God credit for the talents that eventually pull him out of his imprisonment to set him up as a ruler.
I like him as an example because things happen to him that are beyond his control and yet he remains faithful and continues to do what is right. Sometimes I think diligence happens in the dark, so to speak, because you don't know what's right around the corner and you don't know if God's going to pull you out of a problem today or next week or if it's going to take 20 years. This kind of diligence is about patience and trust -- deciding that today I will keep trying and keep trusting God, whether I see a positive result or not.
How do I apply that? I like Debbie' list idea. It's helpful to focus on the tasks I can do. It's also helpful to engage in daily Bible reading and studies like these. How can I remember that God will be faithful with me if I don't read about his faithfulness with others?
I think of Ruth, she was very diligent to stay with her mother-in-law, even to leave her own family and place she was familiar with. ch.1 v 18 says "...she was determined to go with her..." later she was very diligent about working ch.2 v 17 "...she gleaned in the field until evening..." her diligence paid off because she is part of the genealogy of Christ.
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