Finish Your Breakfast!

Proverbs 24:27
Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.

In his book, Decoded, Sean Carter said his friend Strict uses the phrase “finish your breakfast” as a way of saying that you need to finish your job up strong. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day but how many of us skip breakfast? Breakfast gives us the energy we need for the morning so we can be productive. You don’t want to eat half of it and then be halfway productive. You want to finish your breakfast so you can have a powerful morning.

Finishing your breakfast means doing the things that are foundational and important so that you can go to the next level in your life. There are some things that you must do first before you can move onto loftier dreams. You don’t start something and not finish it. Whatever job it is you’ve been given to do, finish it strong before you move on to something else. You never want to be known as someone who never finishes something.

Even as a child I always wanted to finish what I started. If it was a puzzle I kept going until every piece of the puzzle fit. If it was a test I answered every question to the best of my ability. As a young man if I had a job to do I finished it no matter how unpleasant the task. In finishing my breakfast, I’ve learned how to enjoy dinner.

Solomon tells his son to finish his outdoor work and get his fields ready, after that build your house.

There is some preliminary work that needs to be done before you build a house.

1. Finish your outdoor work. There is trash that needs to be removed. Hedges that need to be cut down. Grounds that need to be leveled. This is the non-sexy part of the work. It’s the dirty work that must be done prior to putting up what’s attractive. This is where you are stuck in a musty library for three hours a day studying for college exams. This is where you are working two jobs trying to make ends meet. These are not permanent seasons but necessary.

2. Get your fields ready. You have to get your fields ready so that you can plant something that will sustain you once your house is built. Before you build or buy a house you need to make sure that you have some career that will sustain you through a recession. You don’t buy a house with a part-time job. You need to have cultivated your field. What field of study are you in? What field are you cultivating that is recession proof? Do you have more than one field in case one of them fails?

3. Build your house. After the foundation has been laid then build your house. Even with that make sure you count the cost so that you will not get in the middle of the building project and not be able to finish. Get a budget, plan for unexpected expenses, go slow, do some value engineering, get wise counsel, get the right contractors so that you can build a strong house that will withstand the storms of life.

Dear God,

Help me to finish my breakfast. There’s so much I want to accomplish for you in my lifetime. I want to work the works of him who sent me while it's day, for when night comes no man will be able to work. This morning I’m going to finish my breakfast so that when I sit at the dinner table I can hear you say, “well done, my good and faithful servant, you’ve been faithful over a few things, now come on up and I’ll make you ruler over many.” I’m going to finish my breakfast.

In Jesus Name,
Amen