Tiny Devotional for RED Friday, 04-26-2024

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family who might drop by, Remember Everyone Deployed!

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again.
Proverbs 26:15, NASB

Cleaning Up

One of the reasons for the emphasis on washings in the Old Testament law is that they dined without forks and spoons. Knives, highly useful for stabbing, had long been adapted to the table;  the practice was to cut off a portion of food, pick it up with your fingers, and eat it. Alternatively, you dipped your bread in the dish, and soaked up the gravy that way.

Alas for poor LazyBubba! He is likely to starve, because he can't even lift his fingers out of the common dish and feed his face. 

Sluggards don't usually last in large families. Anyone who leaves his hand in the dish is likely to have it perforated by the knives of his more energetic siblings; if LazyBubba leaves his hand in the dish, he's blocking access to the food. That is NOT a behavior tolerated at mealtime!

In fact, laziness in a large family isn't likely to be tolerated at any time, not just at meals. It takes a lot of cooperative work to get a family fed, clothed, and sheltered. A sure method of causing resentments is  to slack off, reading a book, while your sibs are cleaning, cooking, or farming. (Don't ask me how I know this!)

Perhaps modern technology has subverted important lessons about cooperative labor. However, it's not required that we return to primitive life, IF we ALL learn that dirty clothes belong in the hamper, not the floor, and dirty dishes go in the dishwasher.

Peace be on your household.

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