“Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.“
Proverbs 24:27
Thinking back on my years in high school and college, I really only have one regret.
It doesn’t keep me up at night because of how traumatic or draining it was or anything like that, but I do occasionally reflect in order to avoid this chronic mistake again.
My one regret?
Procrastination.
It’s a plague that affects us all in some way or another, at some time or another, and for me, the word makes me think about school work.
My parents had always used phrases like “Once you’re done with your homework, you can go outside and play, hang out with your friend, etc.”
I was always a good student, and was also a good social butterfly – lots of friends, lots of plans, and lots of competing priorities against school work.
When I think about procrastination, I think about spending my final week of summer break rushing to complete our reading/writing project. I think about going back and forth between homework and snacking, and not really focusing on either. I think about late nights spent juggling homework with mindless scrolling on Facebook.
(Actually, much of my late night Facebook-ing was spent talking with classmates about how much homework we had and commiserating about our shared sleepless nights.)
If I were to go back and do it all over again, I would absolutely tell myself, over and over and over, “Just do the work up front and enjoy all the free time later. And not only will you have more free time, your free time will be lower stress without having the school work looming over you.”
These procrastination tendencies never caused any serious ill effects (outside of a few realllllllllly sleepy days of school), but it was such an unnecessary burden to take on. In fact, a simple reorganization of my priorities would have made all of this so much easier and even more enjoyable.
I was trading what I wanted most for what I wanted now.
Don’t we all do this to some extent? Maybe it’s in work, or your health, or your fitness, or even in your school work like it was for me. But far too often we choose the immediate over the important, and it can get us in a real pickle.
Back to the home work example, there were days when I would hang out with friends before doing the work, and it would usually lead to a lot of fun and a lot of stress. If I had switched the order of operations by doing the work then hanging out with friends, it would have been a little bit of work, a lot of fun, and a lot less stress.
The order you do things matters, and that’s exactly what this month’s Proverb is all about.
“Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.“
What does that even mean? Well, perhaps you’ve heard this phrase about entrepreneurship:
“Feed your business until it feeds you back.”
The business concept is simple: invest in your business until it’s fruits are enough to sustain your lifestyle.
The same goes for this Proverb – not only is it the same general idea, it’s also the exact same specific concept, too!
The author is encouraging us, the readers, to prioritize our affairs. To prioritize how we spend our time and energy. In this example, he says to first take care of doing our required work/duties, and only then should we cash in for our rewards. If someone only had a small sum saved up, he advises spending it on farming supplies in order to grow food and to create an income stream rather than spending it all on living accommodations and still having no source of income. This may have been a very practical application back then, and is definitely applicable to any of us business owners. The overall principle stands, too: sow first, reap later.
In the same way, we ought to trade what we want now for what we want most.
This goes for your time.
For your energy.
For your fitness.
For your career.
For your family.
For your finances.
For anything at all that may require putting something off until you’ve taken care of higher priorities first.
(As a quick side note to all of this, anyone who finds themselves in crippling credit card debt can attest to how powerful this proverb is to follow. If that’s you, it might be worth contemplating any tendencies in your spending and in your life that follow the “immediate over important” pattern. This is no way to live – God has bigger plans for you than consumer debt.)
When my parents would ask me to finish my homework before going out and being social, it was a small request with much bigger implications for our well-being. God asks us to do the same, and we would be wise to heed this advice. We’ve been given so many gifts, so many blessings, and it’s our job to align them with God’s plans and priorities. If we do this, we can be sure that He will lead us and use us; He will provide for and take care of us.
– How often do you take inventory of your personal priorities? Is doing this a high priority on your list?
– Are there any areas in your life that are mis-prioritized?
– How does your fitness rank in your life priorities? Is it above your faith, your family, and your friendships?