Why Should I Be Diligent?

Image result for image of a woman sweeping Through our kitchen remodel confusion, I’m learning more about life and our growth in the Lord. I now realize that diligence isn’t applied disorder spreads. It’s contagious.

Half of our house is chaos, with kitchen countertops gone, step ladders in the middle of the floor, varying tools scattered around, a sink leaning against the wall, broom and dustpan handy, and more. The nature of the clutter and its placement depends on what’s being worked on at the time.

The dining room is cluttered with a temporary kitchen set up in it. The office is stacked with boxes of things from the cabinets. The front porch is designated for sawing and trash collection, and the path traveled from point to point is covered with scatter rugs to protect the floor.

Ordered chaos is necessary to get the job done. But, I’ve learned that disorder in one area of the house makes it easier to slack off in other parts of the home. The mess spreads from room to room because disorder breeds further disorder.

Confusion in one room makes it harder to stay diligent in maintaining order in the rest of the house. Furthermore, debris from one room gets tracked to another. If it don’t stay on top of it, the house whole house is involved.

Isn’t it the same in life? When I’m diligent to exercise, it’s easier to carefully monitor my food intake. Likewise, when exercise falters, I’m less motivated to watch my eating habits. Diligenct discipline in one area encourages it in others.

The Bible indicates that we will rewarded for diligence. “The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich” (Prov. 13:4).

The principle is true in our spiritual life too. Discipline in one area of our walk with God affects the whole. When someone misses church for a spell, it becomes easier to sleep in the next Sunday.When time in the Word is crowded out, prayer life is negatively impacted. And so it goes. The longer we allow slack discipline in our relationship with God, the harder it is to re-establish proper order.

Consequently, God encourages us to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness” (2 Tim. 2:15-16).

“Therefore, beloved, . . . be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation . . .. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Pet. 3:13-18).

I’m tired of interrupting my agenda to sweep and vacuum the floor, but when I slack off, it is quite evident because dust from sawing wood and small pieces of stripped wallpaper end up tracked through the house.

In other areas of my life, the lack of diligence isn’t obvious so quickly, but according to the Word, it’s important—especially that we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s probably the area where it is easiest to slack off, but it’s also the most important.

If I can see the importance of diligence in sweeping the floor, how much more important is it in building a relationship with the Lord? That not only affects every area of life. It also brings Him glory “both now and forever (2 Pet. 3:18).”

Maintaining due diligence is in seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33) is a much more important and lofty goal than keeping trash from tracking through the house. But the need for wielding a broom helped me to see the damage done by not maintaining the lofty goal.

The Rewards of Discipline

The job of parenting is constant. Even simple instructions need to be repeated over and over before they are learned. As parents, we seek to be patient and persevere because of the rewards we desire for our children, but the task isn’t easy.

It doesn’t matter whether the lesson concerns “don’t touch,” “eat your vegetables,” or “look before you cross the street,” lessons aren’t learned with just one simple instruction. It takes many repetitions. Parents of toddlers look forward to the day wh teen and-parent en children are older and all those lessons are past. Parents of pre-teens and teens long for the days when instruction was as simple as in toddler days.

Training children is demanding. Many things take a long time to teach.

I’m sure God would agree. After all, He has more children than we can count. Many times a day, He probably shakes His head and says, “Will he/she never learn?”

One problem with learning a lesson is understanding when to apply it and how. For instance, teaching a child to respect his elders, it’s more complex than it might appear. It seems straight-forward to teach fundamentals like “obey and don’t talk back.” But that involves the will, so it isn’t a simple thing to learn.

However, that is just the beginning. The child must then understand that it applies to more than Dad and Mom. There’s also Grandma, teacher, baby sitter, and occasionally someone else. Each situation is different. The child needs to learn whom to obey—and when.

But that isn’t all. We haven’t even touched on the idea of having an attitude of respect. Or that we need to show respect to all people. At all times.

The same difficulties of learning exist with God’s children. Take the area of trust. The Lord is our Creator, Father, Shepherd, Stronghold, Bulwark, and more. His ways are perfect and His love is pure. He is worthy of our trust.

We know that, and yet, we have difficulty learning to trust Him in all things at all times. (At least I do, and I believe I’m not alone.). For instance, when finances are tight, rather than turning to God, we feel that a solution depends on us. Often, relief doesn’t come until we look to Him, seeking Jehovah Jirah to provide.

When demands on our life are great, and it seems we can’t carry on or do what is demanded of us, we fret and stew because we are inadequate. We waste energy with the burden and lose sleep from worry, all while God is waiting. Finally we trust and He carries the burden with us.

Then when health concerns arise, we feel totally helpless, and likely hopeless. There is nothing we can do but suffer. We’re slow to apply trust when we see no solution. Meanwhile, God is waiting for us to let Him carry us through the storm.

It seems that learning trust in one area does not automatically carry over to us trusting in another area of our lives. If we look at the Israelites in the wilderness, we see that God miraculously provided water for them. However, when they needed water again, they fussed at Moses rather than trust God (Gen. 15:23-25; 17:1-3). Even when trust deals with the same area of our lives, we are slow to learn.

Without trust, there is no peace unless everything is going our way. If and when we trust the Lord with and in every day life, we are at peace—even though the our situation seems difficult at the moment.

In Proverb 3:11 it says, “the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in,” I’ve tended to think of that discipline as referring to correction or rebuke. The original Hebrew word includes correction, but it also means instruction. Our loving Father continues to instruct, to train us in righteousness. If we constantly look to Him and are quick to learn, He will bless us.

As parents, we understand the need for perseverance and patience. As children, God’s children, we need to understand how to “cease striving and know that [He is] God” (Ps. 46:10a), and “commit [our] way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it” (Ps 37:5).

Instead of embracing lessons in life, we tend to grumble about the discipline. It might help us cooperate more fully if we look at the rewards listed in Deuteronomy and Hebrews, rewards that we receive from being disciplined by the Lord. Knowing God’s purposes might help us gain peace in our lives.

“Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you shall eat food without scarcity, in which you shall not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.” (Deut. 8:5-10)

“And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? “If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Heb. 12:5-11).

Life has challenges, but we can be grateful that our heavenly Father uses them to train us, because discipline has rewards that make the challenges worthwhile.

Children Need to Know Their Boundaries

A recent dream stirred up memories of an incident from baby-sitting when I was a teen. One weekend, I cared for children while their parents went out of state for a wedding. I was in charge of 6 or 7-year-old Bill, and his younger brother Dave for three days and two nights.

The first day went well in the morning. In the afternoon Dave pushed the boundaries, keeping me on my toes. Finally, he intentionally wrote on Bill’s prized baseball card.

Bill was incensed.

I carefully explained to Dave not to do that anymore. He seemed to understand. But he immediately wrote on another of Bill’s baseball cards!

Dave was normally an obedient, well-behaved child, and I wasn’t accustomed to handling such problems, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but made sure he understood not to do it again. But he did it again anyway.

I told him that if he didn’t obey, I’d spank him. He assured me that he understood.

(Note: This happened about 50 years ago when most children learned their limits through spanking. For about a minute, I was grateful that was settled.

Then, Dave dared me to spank him. While sitting on the floor, he looked into my eyes while boldly and defiantly writing on the card.

I’d been on the receiving end of many spankings, but I’d never dished one out myself. It was time. I’d said I’d spank him.

First, I asked him tell me why he needed a spanking. Yes, he understood that he was disobedient.

So, I spanked him. I tried to make it hard enough to hurt—without being too hard. He cried appropriately. We hugged, and I told him I loved him. I had him ask Bill to forgive him, and then we had some ice cream together.

Afterward, Dave was fine. He didn’t push the boundaries anymore and we enjoyed our weekend together. I believe I would have learned a lesson that weekend if it ended there, but during his bedtime prayer, Dave did something that cemented the incident in my memory.

Dave asked God to bless Mommy and Daddy and several others. Then he said, “And thank you that Kay spanked me today.”

This insecure teen was put at ease. I questioned my actions, but Dave was grateful.

Children need to know their boundaries. Studies have shown that without clear boundaries, they are insecure. Today, too many children are not given clear boundaries, or set boundaries aren’t enforced—often because parents are reluctant to give consequences for disobedience.

Dave wasn’t accustomed to his parents being gone for the whole weekend. He needed to know if the boundaries had changed. When I reinforced what he knew was right, he felt secure. Since I did it with love, he also felt loved. He was much happier once the issue was settled.

Dave forced me to take charge, and he made me a better parent. When I had children, I wasn’t afraid to set the boundaries or to dish out consequences when they weren’t followed.

It wasn’t always fun, and I wasn’t always as gracious as I could have been, but they my children learned that our choices have consequences—for good or for bad. That’s an important lesson for success in life.

Thank you, Dave.

Robert & Kay Camenisch encouraging and equipping relationships