November 2, 2026

Business by the Book

Proverbs 20:13 Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty …

Someone once said, “The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.”  One sure way to stifle success is to love sleep. Sleep, what a wonderful word. It is a word that conjures up remembrances of rest, comfort, cool sheets, and soft pillows. Sleep is a word describing an action that we all must have every day. Sleep is much like money or eating in that it is lovely to participate in, but it is awful to love.

Loving sleep means to overly participate in that needed requirement of our body. Like money, and so many other things, a person can become so involved in it that it becomes a great hindrance. Everyone needs to eat, needs money, and needs to sleep, but to love these to the point of obtaining them to the exclusion of all else is very dangerous.

Years ago the idea of “power naps” came into vogue. These are short 5- or 10-minute naps that many people find refreshing. A short nap in the midst of a busy day may be effective, but to spend all day napping and all-night sleeping, this may become a problem. Years ago while a supervisor for a package delivery company, we were given some “Peak Labor” during the holidays. These were individuals that were low skilled and paid cash daily. On a certain night I noticed a backup in one of the trailers that was being loaded and I stepped into the trailer to investigate. One of these peak labor guys was laying on the packages sleeping. This was not a power nap, he was sound asleep. He quickly came to poverty.

Dr. William Howe