Wednesday, January 07, 2009

A PROVERB I'M PONDERING

"Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,
but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox."
--Proverbs 14:4

4 comments:

susanna in KY said...

I think it's clearly justification for not cleaning my house.

Anonymous said...

It seems to me to be saying that if you want something worthwhile it will likely be accompanied by something unpleasant, but the end result (no pun intended) will be worth it.

Whose job isn't like that? We put up with numerous small inconveniences to achieve a propose beneficial to us and to others.

I can see the proverb being rewritten quite rudely on a bumper sticker.

Jared Saltz said...

Obviously, cleanliness is not the best judge of hard work, nor even a sign of a dedication to cleaning. Sometimes it's just laziness.

From looking at my house, I'm incredibly busy....

susanna in KY said...

Seriously, it reminds me most of the saying that a house will always need cleaning, but children won't always be children. So you should accept some disorder and imperfection for the greater good of being with your children. A corollary to that would be that you have to choose what in life is most important, because some things are mutually exclusive.

What do you think, Alan?