Hands Busy or Idle

Last week's proverb in the 2005 Dong Proverb Calendar is another proverb strikingly parallel to the Bible.

"Don't let your hands be idle if you want to have enough to eat."

The one that comes to mind right off the bat is this: "A little sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber" (Pr. 6:10, 24:33). I find it beautiful when the Dong proverbs are so close.

As I was thinking on the idle hands, though, I thought to the hands of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:19, "Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy." Few verses sum up Dong woman and the work ethic of most Dong people better than this.

Father, please continue to work in the lives of the Dong people to enlighten them through their own proverbs. In the Dong proverb mentioned, they can see the negative example, but we ask you to take them further and help them see how to spend a life well, working for you.