Ecclesiastes 2 : 9—11 NKJV:
The Vanity of Pleasure
(9) “So I became great and excelled more than all who were
before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.
(10) “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did
not withhold my heart from any pleasure. For my heart
rejoiced in all my labor;
(11) Then I looked on all the work that my hands had done,
And on the labor in which I had toiled,
And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun.”
According to legend, the Apostle John owned a tamed partridge that he enjoyed feeding and tending. The bird was like a comfort companion. It was someone to whom John could freely speak and would listen to his every word. One day, a serious hunter passed by John’s dwelling place and was astonished to see the great apostle playing with his pet bird. The hunter said to John, “I am surprised, sir, to see you engaged in such an amusement when there are such great matters related to the Gospel with which you could be busy.”
The apostle looked the hunter straight in the eye and asked in return, “Do you always keep your bow at the ready and bent?” The hunter quickly replied, “Why no, that would render it useless. I loosen the string unless I am hunting.” The Apostle nodded and said, “So I unbend my mind for the same reason.”
One summer a pastor of a church announced that he wasn’t going to take a vacation, since the devil never goes on vacation. One of his parishioners went home and reread the Gospels just to see if Jesus shared the same type attitude. The Bible student discovered that in the three years of
Christ’s active ministry, Jesus had ten periods of retirement away from the crowds of people, in addition to nightly rest and Sabbath-day rest!
The student asked the pastor the next Sunday, “Are you following the devil’s example or the Lord’s?”
Successful living and accomplishment is not a sprint, is not something that can be lived at a 100 mph pace all the time. Rather it is marathon. The best of all leaders stay steady at the task until the task is completed. They have a good plan to achieve their desired success and they carefully and purposefully plan their work and work their plan, always insuring to schedule-in many periods of their own rest and recovery.
If a person is not rested and ready to perform at full capacity, they simply cannot be an effective leader of others.
Take time to rest and play with your family.
Recreation is just that, recreation—a time to renew your energy, as well as your most valuable personal relationships.
A person who knows who they are, where they are going, and how they are going to get there,….just cannot be stopped from reaching their desired goals.
God’s Greatest Blessings To All Of You…………………..