WEDNESDAY - 19TH NOVEMBER, 2025
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - Olusola & Oreoluwa ADEJUMO
"She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."
The Bible recognizes there's a "meal of idleness." That's what it calls the "bread of idleness." Bread of idleness is not what comes to you or falls as your portion because God hates you or doesn't want to care for you. Rather, it is what you attract or cause by your lazy attitude to work.
When a man refuses to work or be a hard worker, there's no way he won't eat the bread of idleness. Let me explain what bread of idleness is first of all. Bread of idleness doesn't necessarily mean "food or meals" only that are not elaborate, rich or sufficient. It means every proceeds from your inactivity and having not worked hard. If when your mates are applying themselves to work, seeking to go to school, acquiring a skill or an education, you're there chasing after shadows, you can't but one day reap the consequences of your idleness and inactivity. So, when people reap the repercussions of having or eating the bread of idleness, it means there's a life they had afore lived that brought that on them. Eating the bread of idleness is what any man causes for himself. It'll show in the general life he or she lives. Instead of being a life of sufficiency and abundance (overflow), it'll be a stringent life where resources are never enough. They're always getting stranded and trying to look for more. This may be a direct link to having not worked hard or earned well.
The Bible has warned that a man that doesn't work shouldn't eat (II Thess.3:10). It's as simple as A B C. If you have no work, you can't but be forced to eat the bread of idleness. You will have to depend on the crumbs or mercies of people. You will have to wait on people to toss to you what they have long used and can't keep for themselves any longer. You'll have to wait for people to kick to you certain change just for you to keep your body and soul together.
That is what it means to eat the bread of idleness. It simply means suffering the consequences of having not been engaging, firm with work and being the decider of one's fate or destiny.
That's what the Bible reports about this woman. It says, "she looks well to the ways of her household..."
Why does she do this? Because she doesn't want her children to turn out bad, idle or as lazy bones tomorrow. She looks well unto the ways of her household by correcting ills in her children and all domestic staff working for her. She seeks to set them right. She raises them well to be diligent, active and busy. It is this looking well unto the ways of her household that'll guarantee the future of her kids and down lines. When she is gone, they themselves will be independent men with their various vocations with which they'll be busy. That way, they cannot eat the bread of idleness. Hard workers and well rewarded people in life don't eat the bread of idleness. They are rather fed from choice meals, taking the kind of vacation they like and enjoying life's goodies.
They have the assorted life. They have varieties and choice meals to choose from. They are not limited to dry bread only or what life offers them. They make life happen. Now, because this woman looks unto the ways of her household - that is, how her household's personal affairs are conducted in, the Bible then concludes with, "and does not eat the bread of idleness."
Because she works and applies diligence to all, she is not amidst the multitude who tells their kids, "let us manage this", therefore hiding under the cloak that God will provide. If you don't work and work to be well rewarded, there's no way you can escape not eating the bread of idleness. What can a man do if he doesn't have resources in his pocket? Won't he settle for whatever is offered him? As a matter of fact, he'll receive it with utmost and deep appreciation.
That's why you must emulate this woman. Look unto your ways. Look unto the affairs of your family. Ensure no one is slack in their work, career or calling. Ensure everybody's hands are on the spindle and distaff of their professions. This way, nobody will be poorly treated by life. This way, no one will have little or less to eat. Rather, there will be abundance in the house. Rather, it is a table you will set like the kings' and nobles'.
If you do not carefully watch everything in your household, you'll suffer the harms and consequences that laziness and slackness produces somewhere. So, be vigilant lest poverty creeps into your household while you're wide awake.
PRAYER: Lord, I protect against eating the bread of idleness. I am fed from riches and fat.
BIBLE IN A YEAR:
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