la·zy [ley-zee] adjective – averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion

Laziness is an enemy of true authentic manhood.  It works against everything a man is called to be and do. True men aren’t lazy.

The following are six areas where a man needs to fight laziness.

1) Starting And Finishing

Laziness keeps a man from starting and/or finishing.  Men are called to do great exploits.  No one has ever done anything great without first starting. You can’t finish what you haven’t started.

What project or task are you responsible for or have you committed to that you haven’t started yet? Start it.  No more procrastinating.  Don’t make excuses.  Don’t be lazy.  Be a man.

What project or task have you started but you haven’t finished?  Are you a good starter but a lousy finisher?  Stop avoiding.  Be responsible.  Don’t be lazy.  Finish the job like a man.

2) Work

As we saw in the definition above, laziness is averse or disinclined to work.  A lazy boy avoids work at all costs.  A man is eager to work.  He works hard.  He knows that works existed in a world without sin (Gen 2:5,15) and that a man is called to work.

Boys only want to play, men work.  Are you a hard worker?  Do you have a job?  Are you willing to work a job you don’t like, if it’s necessary to provide for your family?  A lazy boy is not willing to sacrifice. He does the least required to make the bare minimum.  A man works heartily (Col 3:23). Work hard. Don’t be lazy.

3) Keeping And Cultivating

A lazy boy only does something if it’s fun.  Laziness lets things go.  A lazy boy drops the ball and is unreliable.  A man keeps what has been given to him to be responsible for, going well and running smoothly.

It’s easy to plant a garden, it’s another thing to keep and cultivate a garden.  It’s easy and fun to impregnate a woman.  It’s a lot of work and responsibility to raise children.  A man can be counted on to keep and to cultivate what he’s responsible for.

What “gardens” of your life have you let go?  Are you faithful in the little?  Can you keep your room clean?  How’s your personal hygiene?  Can you keep a job or a promise?  Or are you lazy?  Be a man.  Keep up and cultivate what God has given you to be responsible for.

4) Lazy Eyes And Hands

A lazy boy lets his eyes wander.  A man is not lazy with his eyes.  It takes deliberate intentionality to stay focused on the right things.  When a man gets lazy with his eyes, a little compromise here and there, he eventually finds his whole body full of darkness (Luke 11:34).

Lazy eyes are lustful eyes.  Are you lazy on the internet, watching TV, at the mall, the beach, or standing in the checkout line of a grocery store?  A man is the glory of God (1 Cor 11:7).  Be like Job who made a covenant with his eyes not to look at a woman lustfully (Job 31:1 NIV).

A lazy boy is lazy with his hands.  He uses his hands to take, harm, or touch inappropriately.  How are you using your hands?  Are you masturbating, fornicating, or clicking on porn sites.  Be a man. Use your hands to bless, to give, to protect, to work.  Use your hands like a man, to the glory of God.

5) Fighting For Women

A lazy boy comes home from work and only thinks of himself.  He’s too lazy to fight for his wife or to find a wife.  Instead he substitutes fighting for a women with fighting in a video game, surfing the internet, checking sports scores on his phone, watching TV, or fantasy football. A man comes home from work and no matter how tired he is, he saves his wife’s day (Eph 5:23).  He washes his wife with the word, or gets in the word so that when he gets a wife some day he can wash her with the word from his heart.

Single guys, it’s not good for you to be alone (Gen 2:18).  Are you being lazy and putting off becoming a man that can love a women and provide for a family or are you pursuing maturity as a man?  Married men, you won your women’s heart and made her your wife.  Are you still winning her heart now that you’ve been married for a while?  Don’t be lazy.  Be a man.

6) Leadership

A lazy boy avoids leadership because it’s too costly.  It demands too much sacrifice.  He’d rather criticize than contribute.  A man courageously sacrifices for the good of others.  A man takes risks and solves problems.  Are you leading like a man?

Are you following the culture, or leading it?  Are you leading in purity, creativity, thoughts, and ideas?  Are you leading at your job, in your church, and in your neighborhood?  Are you spiritually, physically, and financially leading your wife and kids?  When you and your wife are both around are you leading in consistently disciplining your kids or are you being lazy?  Are you instructing your wife and kids in the Lord or are you being lazy?  Don’t be lazy.  Lead like a man.

(Image Credit: maureen_sill)