Changes Our Slothfulness to Dispatch, April 17

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.

There are young men and young women who are very much opposed to order and discipline.... They pay no heed to rules for rising and retiring at regular hours, but burn the midnight oil, and then lie in bed in the morning.... Would it not be well to break up the habit of turning the precious hours into night, and turning the hours of night into day by the use of artificial light? ...

As far as possible, it is well to consider what is to be accomplished through the day. Make a memorandum of the different duties that await your attention, and set apart a certain time for the doing of each duty. Let everything be done with thoroughness, neatness, and dispatch....

Give yourself a number of minutes to do the work, and do not stop to read papers and books that take your eye, but say to yourself, “No, I have just so many minutes in which to do my work, and I must accomplish my task in the given time.” ... Let those who are naturally slow of movement, seek to become active, quick, energetic, remembering the words of the apostle, “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” ...

If you are under the control of slow, dilatory movements, if your habits are of a lazy order, you will make a long job out of a short one; and it is the duty of those who are slow, to reform, and to become more expeditious. If they will, they can overcome their fussy, lingering habits....

Earnest, persevering effort will place you on the vantage-ground of victory; for he who strives to overcome in and through the grace of Christ, will have divine enlightenment, and will understand how great truths can be brought into little things, and religion can be carried into the little as well as into the large concerns of life.43