Opus 2015-173: Monday Pulpit: Sources of Poverty, part 9 of ?, Planning ahead

Sometimes the key words are not used but the idea is easily seen in the story.  Most people are aware of Aesop’s fable about the grasshopper and the ant.  Here we see a similar idea in Proverbs.  Lack of planning.

(Proverbs 6:6 KJV)  Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

A lot of people have this tremendous sympathy for the grasshopper who played away the summer months.  While the ants were working he was partying.  Now the cold is coming and he comes with his hand out.

We see this in our American culture.  People live high and save nothing.  They run up their credit card bills and file bankruptcy.  They carry no insurance and go to the emergency room.  They eat until they are extremely overweight and want someone to pay for their diabetes medicine.  They do no homework and expect to pass their classes.

I hear certain bits of “wisdom” in our day and age.  All my life I have heard that you can’t make it on one salary.  We have done it.  The problem isn’t that you cannot live on one salary.  The problem is you can’t live like you want to on one salary.  I have heard that you can’t survive on Social Security.  My mother did it.  Of course she was an ant while younger.  My parents had their house paid off when it came time to retire.  Did they have all the luxuries?  No, but they had everything they needed.

So work hard and plan ahead.  Does it guarantee anything?  No, but the chances of having food in the winter are a lot higher than if you expect someone else to work and provide for you.

To be continued...