How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
—Proverbs 6:9
Before leaving for an appointment, Ebenezer Webster laid out the day’s chores for his sons Daniel and Ezekiel. He returned at the end of the day and found they had done none of them.
“What have you been doing all day?” he asked Ezekiel.
“Nothing, sir.”
“What have you been doing?” Daniel.
“Helping Zeke, sir.”
How long are you going to laze around doing nothing? … A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there … (Prov. 6:9-10 MSG).
Things that keep slothful people physically alive continue to function—their lungs work, their heart beats.
But the qualities that would make them contributors to the world—work, service, sacrifice—have been put on ice.
“Some are willing to work, and the rest are willing to let them,” wrote Robert Frost.
Motto of the slothful: Never do today
what you can put off until tomorrow.