Thank God every morning,
when you get up,
that you have something to do that day
which must be done…
Work will breed in you temperance and self-control,
diligence and strength of will,
cheerfulness and content,
and a hundred virtues
which the idle never know.
~ Charles Kingsley
*photo taken from my kitchen window this morning
Idleness, laziness, sloth…
call it what you will,
it is one of my besetting sins.
Like a malignant tumor,
laziness grows tendrils deep within me.
I can sit here and write about it,
and not see the dirty floor around me.
Does this quote strike you as inspiring or judgmental?
A Living Pencil 
inspirational – it would motivate me….but I will mention that I have forgotten for two weeks to buy a new head for my sponge mop.I have a favorite Robert Service poem about work and joy, that I keep nearby.Blessings on your *productive* Thursday.
Mary would say it is inspirational. Martha might get ticked. With a view like that out my kitchen window I would side with Mary.
Inspirational, it gives me permission to write rather than vacuum! (Productivity in many ways is a good thing!) We do get some dandy sun raises/sets around here, don’t we!
What time did you get up to take that beautiful photo? (this will determine whether the tendrils have taken root or not…. i find the quote inspirational (i can’t say judgmental, can i?). My dear granddad had a saying: a change in work is rest… I’ve tried to install that saying in my childrens’ lives; but, alas, a gifted gabber, i.e my son (as young as he was then) changed it to: a change in rest is work. Needless to say, the saying never took root in my household… eish…now i’m sitting with the Martha/Mary complex….Carol, so many times your blogposts hit the nail on the head with issues i struggle with… the problem is I see the dirty floor….
Oh, my goodness, are you sitting on my shoulder as I type this on my computer, sitting on MY dirty kitchen floor? What is it about mopping that gets to us? I even have the swiffer thing, that all you have to do is attach the wet thingie to it, mop, and throw it away! And once I do it, I look at it and say to myself, “How hard was that? It looks great!” Until the next time…..is this part of acedia or what?
Sounds a little like Kathleen Norris’ acedia. Actually I thought it more judgmental than inspirational. Could that be because I have a dirty kitchen floor that I have been trying not to see? I do have a teeny excuse since it also represents physical activity that is difficult for me at the moment. But still…Something needs to be done about that floor! And I manage to keep busy anyway.
Speaking of mops and buckets, I like to keep it all in perspective by simply reminding myself these things are just a drop in the bucket of eternity Blessings, Laurie
Dana, what’s the Robert Service poem?Carol, how ’bout “convicting”? It’s judgmental of my sin, but in a purifying way that ends up motivating me to obedience. (And now I will go wash the dishes at 1 a.m.)
inspirational! But it also lends me to consider what ‘work’ I will employ myself today. My contest is the balance between the barrage of never ending household chores and the task of raising my children. Thank you for the encouragement to continue on in my fight.
Unfortunately, I can so relate to you. I am so often contented to sit and work at the computer while the whole house screams to be cleaned.