Do Not Wear Yourself Out

"Do not wear yourself out to get rich;

have the wisdom to show restraint.

Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
for they will surely sprout wings
and fly off to the sky like an eagle."

- Proverbs 23:4-5

My husband works in the food industry. Many holidays the company's office personnel have the day off, but my husband still has to go out and service grocery stores, because they're open. You can't tell Wal-mart that they won't be serviced because it's Memorial Day or Labor Day. The sales reps have to be there, or risk losing shelf space.

I thought about how times have changed. When I was a little girl, nothing was open on Christmas. Nothing. Christmas day was spent at home. No outside entertainment was needed (other than visits from family); there was plenty to be played with. One of the local television stations had Christmas music playing the entire day, while a yule log burned. No programming, because Christmas wasn't about watching TV. It was about being with family.

Thanksgiving was a special event also. Generations of women got together in the kitchen to prepare (from scratch) the most delectable meals imaginable; the whole house smelled like heaven for days. If you realized you'd run out of cinnamon, you went over to your neighbor to borrow some because there was no store to run to; everyone was home and all business establishments were closed. The day was spent eating, napping, playing games, reminiscing, and being together.

Now, everything centers around the pursuit of the mighty dollar. Grocery stores are open till 7:00pm on Thanksgiving day as a "service to the consumer". Problem is, the employees at that store are consumers, too, with families who won't get a home cooked meal because at 7:00 it's too late to start cooking. Many people who are out working that day will bring home catered food, thereby eliminating some of the most precious hours of the holiday, the time of food prep, of serving the family by preparing something scrumptous like only mom/grandma/auntie can make. The focus of the conversation (and this irritates me to no end) is not family, or even football. It's the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday. It's about stores making money, and people spending money, and doing excessive overtime to make more money to spend.

Christmas likewise, has become more about consumerism than a day to celebrate the birth of our Lord. People are together in the morning as they open presents, then run off to the movies. I don't get it. Families can't have conversations at a movie theater. Where's the bonding? Where are the memories? Isn't this the perfect time to play with that new board game? Wouldn't you rather help Jr. put that new model together? How about if Mom and big sister entertain us with a fashion show, trying on all their new outfits? We can laugh together, talk, have fun without leaving the house.

The one thing that stood out in my mind was this: we work more now than we did back then, yet the economy is in the dumps. Doesn't seem to make sense, does it? We should be making more money because we work more hours, yet we have less and less. Everyone is "wearing themselves out to get rich" yet we've seen how the money has "sprouted wings and flown off to the sky like an eagle." It isn't that making money is wrong; we need to work if we want to eat. But our priorities have shifted, and the main concern is about making more money and having more stuff. God has been put on the back burner, and His advise has been overlooked. We need to get back to where we used to be. We need to return to the place where work was a means to support our families, and then take the time to be with said families. Let's get our priorities straight, people. Let's make holidays what they are meant to be: holy days.