Monday, March 19, 2018

Proverbs 27:14 -- On Avoidance and Ulterior Motives

"He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him."
Proverbs 27:14


This is a hilarious verse.  I do think that there is a good lesson here beyond the humor though.  Sometimes we do good things for the wrong reasons.  For instance, how many of us have gotten a sudden urge to clean the house when we are trying to avoid doing something else, or facing something that is uncomfortable?  That happens to me sometimes, and although cleaning is a totally good thing, it isn't good if we're using it to avoid something more important.

Similarly, in this verse blessing a friend is awesome.  However, if our ulterior motive is to wake him up... not so good.  Work, school, and church are great things, but if we are using them to escape from important relationships, also probably not great.

I'm not saying that any of this is easy.  I definitely haven't mastered it, and it is a tough call sometimes which things are better than others, and I don't think that God always needs us to agonize over the best use of our time every second of the day, because he wants us to be able to relax and have fun sometimes too.  But maybe today we can think about our motivations, and do good things because they are truly good, not because we are trying to avoid or accomplish something else.  Let's really consider other people's feelings and work to be considerate and kind as well as being good. :)

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