FROM TODAY'S READING (11/4/2015)...
For some time, an old farmer had been plowing with an ox and a mule teamed together; working them pretty hard. The young ox said to the mule, “Let’s play sick today and rest a little while.” But the old mule said, “No, we need to get the work done, for the growing season is short.”
But the ox played sick, and the farmer brought it fresh hay and corn and made the ox comfortable. When the mule came in from plowing, the ox asked how it went in the fields. “We didn’t get as much done,” answered the mule, “but we did a fair stretch.” Then the ox asked, “What did the old man say about me?” “Nothing,” said the mule.
The next day, the ox, thinking it had a good thing going, played sick again. And when the mule returned from the field very tired, the ox asked, “How did it go today?” “All right, I guess,” the mule replied, “but we didn’t get much done.” Then the young ox asked, “What did the old man say about me?” “Nothing to me,” the mule answered, “but he did stop and have a long talk with the butcher.”
- Unknown
1 Corinthians 9:9-10 (NLT) For the law of Moses says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this? Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-11 (NLT) Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? 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.
