HUNGRY HAROLD

"Whoever refuses to work is not allowed to eat." 2 Thes. 3:10b (TEV)

      Do you ever get hungry? Have you ever been hungry because you were sent to your room without supper. Harold Peterson is a boy who is often found looking for food because he’s hungry - hungry because he keeps getting sent to his room with out lunch.

     Several weeks ago Harold was wandering around looking for something to eat when he met up with Barney. On this particular day Barney was trying to memorize a new memory verse for his Sunday School class. The verse he was learning was 1 Thessalonians 3:10 and it said something about not eating and not working, but he wasn’t sure what it meant.

     “What are you mumbling about?” Harold asked as he picked up Barney’s Bible to look under it. “What are you looking for under my Bible?” Barney replied. “Food,” said Harold, “I’m starving.” “You always think your starving,” said Barney. “This time I really am,” said Harold, “I got sent to my room again without any lunch.”

     When asked why he got sent to his room, Harold started to mumble about how his mom said he had to clean his room or go without lunch, and that he didn’t think his room was messy even though there was so much stuff on the floor that you couldn’t see it. “I moved some stuff around,” he said, “But mom said that wasn’t good enough, and now I might not get supper either and we’re having my favorite meal.”

     “Every meal is your favorite,” Barney said and than asked him if he was going to clean his room now. Harold said he didn’t think he could handle doing all that work and when he said that Barney told Harold about his memory verse and how it said those who don’t work shouldn’t eat. Harold thought his mom must have been reading that same verse, and so did Robert.

      Who’s’ Robert? Robert is Harold’s grandpa. His full name is Robert Grey but all the kids just call him Grandpa. Anyway, Grandpa Grey, as I call him, had overheard the boys talking and tried to help them understand the verse Barney was learning and how it applied to Harold and his getting sent to his room without getting to eat.

      Harold than decided it might be a good idea to clean his room and what a story that turned out to be but I’ll save that for next time

      Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.” Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.

2 Thessalonians 3:10-13 (NLT)

      Despite Harold's feeling about working to clean his room, work is not a bad thing. If you stop and think about it, work is a command from God.

• Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. - Genesis 2:15 (NAS)
• Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, - Exodus 20:9 (ESV)

      Not only does the Bible tell us we are to work but it gives us some very good reasons to work some of which are:

• To provide for one's family - But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. - 1 Timothy 5:8 (NAS)
• To have something to share - He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. - Ephesians 4:28
• Because we are ultimately working for the Lord - Don't work hard only when your master is watching and then shirk when he isn't looking; work hard and with gladness all the time, as though working for Christ, doing the will of God with all your hearts. Remember, the Lord will pay you for each good thing you do, whether you are slave or free. - Ephesians 6:6-8 (TLB)

      On the flip side of things, laziness often leads to trouble. For Harold it meant going without eating similar to the command Paul gave the Thessalonians. As for many of us, laziness can lead to more than just hunger. Consider the words of Solomon: I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense. I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber. - Proverbs 24:30-34 (NLT)

     Here's Something to Ponder

• Are you working hard at working hard.
• Are you being lazy in regards to being lazy.