Slothfulness: The Unmotivated

I run around the neighborhood every day either running or bicycling. Even when the weather is perfect, few young people are outside. What is every few feet is a yard service charging big bucks. We realize that to be a mighty oak, there needs to be strong saplings. In the case of youth, it's not physical strength which is necessary but strong motivation. Why aren't young people motivated? Because their parents unmotivated them. Rather than a strong dose of yard work it's always entertainment in some form or another. Many children are not even motivated to read to develop mentally.

I told a child that he needed to start mowing the yard. He is ten years old. His response was, "I'm just a kid. I don't need to work." I asked him, "Are there not things which you want?" He looked puzzled as he responded, "No. I don't need anything very often." Why? Because every desire is supplied to him. He lacks any motivation to work because he is in sloth training.

Sloths are friendly little creatures. They seem to smile as they slowly shimmy across the ground. Sloths conserve their energy, and do it very well! However, when they are excited, such as escaping harm, they burst forth at high speeds even though they are metabolically, well, slothful. Even though they are very strong animals, they just don't use their strength. Why should they? There is no need to exert their strength! Their food source comes to them. Being creatures who crawl on their bellies, food is always in their face.

You can see the analogy. The youth of today are sloths. They are such because parents attempt to demonstrate love by giving them their every whim. Just as a sloth, enabling parents just bring their lazy sloth food, entertainment, and more entertainment. These kids do get bursts of energy sometimes: they demand things very forcefully when the parents take a short respite. As in the Transference commentary yesterday, kids take out their anger on the hand that feeds them when the hand, for a few seconds, fails to feed them.

The seven deadly sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. (Aquinas, Thomas (2013-08-20). Summa Theologica (All Complete & Unabridged 3 Parts + Supplement & Appendix + interactive links and annotations). e-artnow. ISBN 9788074842924). These sins are all abuses of one's own self. They all go against the virtues which are best for the individual. All these are hurtful to the person who sins in those manners. Slothfulness is the sin of failing to provide for one's own existence. It's not reaching out for what is there, but waiting for it to come to you!

Guess what little sloths grow into? Adult sloths! Slothfulness is their very nature. What do young sloths grown into? Adult sloths! These children hovered inside with their video games and movies will be adults who prefer to hover inside with their video games and movies.  

Parents would never wait until a child is an adult to start the learning process. The child would be unprepared for real life: a job, a family, or even to be a balanced well-rounded person. Why then, do parents wait until children are adults to teach them the work ethic? Work is the vocation of every person, outside of professional welfare frauds. Why should they not be trained for their vocation?

Kids learn to sing and dance, and spend much time focusing on dancing and singing. Add to that sports and movies. The reality is that most adults are not singers, dancers, professional athletes nor movie stars. They waste their idle time by studying to be what most of them will never be! If nightclubs need all those singers, who would be left to sit at the table and listen? Youth who expect the nourishment to come to them are badly mistaken. Even if they are sloths, unmotivated sloths only reach out for the minimum requirements for their metabolism. Since the days of Adam, man must provide by "the sweat of his brow". 

The malady of slothfulness has taken over our young. Work makes a person content, believe it or not!

1 Thessalonians 4:11 (ESV) "And to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. "

Be ye motivated! Parents must condition their children to enjoy work and understand that work is  necessary for survival. Can you imagine, dog lovers, if you waited until your dog was mature to do the training? Your dog would be worthless as a pup, and as a full-grown dog. Dogs must be conditioned or they become worthless dogs, which are not even good company! Slothful adults don't make good company either, and neither do slothful kids! Who wants to pick up after their children all the time? Fools!

For instance, at times my own daughter would snack before bedtime, then leave her soiled dishes in the family room. Too tired to clean up  after herself, she would go on to bed thinking that dad or mom would do the cleaning up. On those few occasions I didn't clean up her mess - I went upstairs, awoke her from a deep sleep, and escorted her down the stairs to clean up her own mess. That was hard work for me, but conditioning for her. It took two occasions, and she was trained and responsible. Now her own house is immaculate, and there is never a dirty dish in her house. She washes them as they are used.

I always made my children work for what they had. If they wanted expensive shoes, I paid for the amount the cheap ones would cost. That was my responsibility as a parent. If they wanted any more, they earned their own money, and upgraded. Guess what? After working hard for their money, they often re-evaluated how they would spend it! Frugality comes with hard work; it's a bonus.

Heather not only is a great housekeeper but she is a motivated salesperson. She is the leading home salesperson almost every year to the extent that her former boss told her to back off because it discourages those who can't compete with her. Maybe my trips up the stairs contributed to that! Maybe she was self-motivated. Either way, she was a hard worker from her youth.

We will never make America great again unless two things change: how we educate our children, and what we allow them to consume. We must educate them toward greatness, and keep drugs from them. Children are slothful enough without chemically inducing them to slothfulness. Marijuana and the like have to go. I believe that even sloths would not be stupid enough to inhale stupid weed! It demotivates, and unmotivated youth proves that!

Colossians 3:23 (ESV) "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men..."

And train and train and train! If you don't who will? The world? Train them young and they are trained for life:

 Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."