Diligence Equals Success

I began reading a book called, “The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness” written by Steven K. Scott. I liked the title. That’s why I bought the book. Who doesn’t want to be successful, have wealth (this refers to more than money) and happiness? I’m only into the third chapter, but I’m already seeing why people don’t reach these goals for themselves. I can look back and see why I experienced failure, especially when I was a young man.

Failure will always come to those who are not diligent. The author defined diligence: "DILIGENCE is a learnable skill that combines: creative persistence, a smart-working effort rightly planned and rightly performed in a timely, efficient, and effective manner to attain a result that is pure and of the highest quality of excellence." In other words diligence is the well planned effort of hard work and perseverance. Many of us have failed because we couldn’t take the continuous pressure of a difficult task. When I was in seminary I had a tough load of courses one semester. Greek was the most demanding class for me. At almost the halfway point in the semester I dropped the course although I had an average of an A. That was probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. I just decided on my own that dropping the class would be the best way to ease my difficult schedule.

This brings me to the second point. Everyone needs wise counsel. We need a partner, as Steven Scott puts it. We can always find someone who knows more than we do about anything we are doing. Find a person who has experience, someone who is not wrapped up in the pressure that you are experiencing. We all need somebody that will tell us the truth, not necessarily what we want to hear. If I had gone to my professor or an academic advisor I’m sure I would have avoided the mistake I made about dropping that class. I believe that if everyone would seek wise counsel there would be less failed marriages, fewer people losing their jobs, fewer people going into bankruptcy, more individuals avoiding illnesses because of unhealthy eating habits and abuses of alcohol, drugs and tobacco and fewer students performing far below excellence.

I think every high school student needs a class on how to be successful in life. They need to learn how to study efficiently, and they need someone who will hold them accountable while they are in school. Very often parents either don’t know how or don’t try to help their teenagers do what they should do. Our country’s priorities are out of line when it comes to education. Parents do too much for their children. They do everything they can to make life easy for them. They buy them whatever they want. Instead of spending hours each week studying our students spend hours on their IPhones and video games. Parents allow this and when their child makes a failing grade it’s the teachers fault. So many students fail or barely get by because they are not diligent and they don’t have anyone to give them wise counsel.

Lack of diligence in the workplace, home, government and in personal lives is hurting  our nation. King Solomon said that the person who lacks diligence is a sluggard, lazy and a fool. Wow! That hurts. Sometimes the truth does hurt, but Jesus said, “The  truth will set you free.”