Here are the Lord’s advice on sluggards:
Proverbs 6:6-11
Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
No overseer or ruler,
Yet it stores its provisions in summer
And gathers its food at harvest.
How long will you be there , you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest—
And poverty will come on you like a bandit
And scarcity like an armed man.
A child who starts walking, is difficult to follow around the house. He is excited on all the first things he does. He is full of energy, has a twinkling eyes, his happiness show on his face. If he falls, because of an unsteady gait yet, he would get up again, and do whatever he wants to do .
Usually at an early age before five , the child is admonished if he makes a mistake to impress on the child good values. But as he reaches five, the rod has to be used already. For misbehavior, we have to use the rod, so that the child would remember his mistakes by inflicting a little pain. Even the Lord says:
Proverbs 13:24
He who spares the rod hates his son,Proverbs 23:13-14
but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
Do not hold discipline from a child;
If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
Punish him with the rod
And save his soul from death.
When the child is at age five, he goes to kinder school and therefore exposed to environment outside of the family. He has to deal with pranksters, or receive the brunt of the teacher in case he misbehaves. If the child is admonished in the presence of the classmates, even at that young age, the child gets embarrassed. In most cases he does not want to return to school because he has lost face.He loses the twinkle in his eyes.
More often than not, the child would not tell the parents about the root cause why he does not want to go back to school. He just say: “I don’t want to go back to school, “tinatamad ako” (don’t feel like going back to school) If parents do not go deeper to find out the truth, it could be perceived as laziness, because he’d rather play around the house. He feels secure at home where his loved ones are.
The child may become lazy and would eventually not have the stamina for school work, because he can’t catch up, which could be attributed to the unhealthy foods that the child eats or he lacks sleep because of television. Or the child is bothered by the squabbling of the parents. In school, he would not be able to focus. Thus, he is perceived as lazy even by teachers who do not know the real problem.
We have to take care not only of the child’s physical needs, but his emotional and spiritual needs as well, not merely focusing on the intellectual aspect.
For a young mother, taking care of the housekeeping, budgeting, attending to the needs of the children is an awesome task, but if God is with you, the load becomes lighter. Submit to the Lord’s commands and ask HIS protection and guidance on a daily basis, so that your children would not turn out to be sluggards and be
a burden to society.
Below is the message of our Lord Jesus through the late Veronica Luenken of Bayside:
Jesus -
"I ask parents to restore discipline to their homes. I demand My pastors to restore discipline to My Church upon earth. You will not convert the masses, but you will set yourselves to be destroyed by the enemies of God, because you do not pray, because you do not seek means of mortification. I say unto you, as your God, in the name of your Creator, that as you sow, so shall you reap - and many of you are preparing to reap the whirlwind!
