Proverbs 15, 19 says, the way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain. I have known slothful men and women over the years, and they almost always have one thing in common, excuses. There's always a reason they do so little and accomplish nearly nothing, and it's never their fault. Ask parents of children, and most will tell you that they had to deal with the slothful nature found in most kids. They would rather play than work. And the typical parent has watched a child play with energy and vigor, only to see that child slouch with fatigue when asked to stop playing and to do some chore. And when excuses produce procrastination, then that chore becomes harder and harder to accomplish. This is what the point of our proverb is when it says, the way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns. If the slothful man would have gone on his way when he should have, the way would have been clear. But by putting things off, procrastinating, and avoiding the task, the way gets filled with obstacles, like a hedge of thorns. I learned this lesson when I was about 13 years old. I was supposed to cut the grass one summer day. School was out, so I had all day to do it. But the weatherman had predicted storms to blow in early that evening, and the rain was supposed to last for a couple of days. My dad was at work all day, but When he got home after 4 p.m., he expected the grass to be cut. Well, I found a dead spark plug and replaced the good one in the mower with the bad one. I then rolled the mower to the back of the house, behind the back door of our house, so that my mom, who was busy in the kitchen, could see me struggle as I pretended to try to start the mower. After a few minutes, I slumped on our stone bench and pretended to be discouraged and worn out from my efforts to start the mower. My mom saw this, so she came out and made sure it had gas in it and looked at it, you know, and pulled the string a few times. I wonder what's wrong with it, she asked. I lied and said I have no idea. I don't know how to fix lawnmowers. Well, she said, wait until your dad gets home and he can look at it. Mission accomplished. By the time dad got home, the storms had started and the grass wasn't cut. But mom told me, but mom explained to him that she'd tried to start the mower too, and it really just wouldn't start. Because of lightning, my dad didn't mess with it. He let it go. It rained most of the next two days as predicted, and then it was Sunday. Sometime Sunday evening, dad got the mower running, and I was told to mow the grass the next morning, but it rained again on Monday. It was too wet to mow until Tuesday. It had been nearly a whole week since I was supposed to cut our already too high grass. So there was no way around it. I had to cut it. twice. The grass was so high I had to set the wheels at their high level and cut it once, and then set them down to the normal level and cut it again. It was about 100 degrees outside, no wind, and the whole time I had to stop and pick up sticks and toys and trash that had blown into the yard due to the storms. What normally took one hour ended up taking me almost four hours to accomplish. The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns. People do this spiritually as well. They don't study to show themselves approved unto God. They don't hide God's Word in their hearts. They don't pray without ceasing. They don't walk with God. And they don't prepare so that they are ready for life or ready to be used of God. And then when they finally start on their way, they find they've junked up the way with sin and bad choices. And their spiritual spark plug just seems dead. It'll take some extra effort to get where they ought to have been in the first place. But the way of the righteous is made plain. So start today. If you're saved but acting like a spiritual sloth, get busy today. Do daily and faithfully what you ought to be doing. Get in God's Word. Pray throughout your day. Talk to others about Jesus. And God will bless your efforts and clear your way ahead. Don't be a spiritual sloth.