Motivation

Lately I've been lacking motivation to study. I had a unit that I thought would be really easy and go really quickly and I've gotten bogged down and it's taking much longer to get done. Then discouragement sets in and then it's easy for me to lose motivation. I've been reading through Proverbs for a while which says things like "Go to the ant you sluggard," "A little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands at rest and so comes poverty like a theif in the night," "He becometh poor that dealeth [with] a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. . ."

Today I decided it was time to move on to another of my favorite books, Ecclesiastes. After reading the first couple of chapters this morning I'm not sure that was a great motivational choice. "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all [was] vanity and vexation of spirit, and [there was] no profit under the sun." "
For [there is] no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now [is] in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise [man]? as the fool. Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun [is] grievous unto me: for all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit."

This last verse is the most tempting one:

"There is nothing better for a man, [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it [was] from the hand of God."

So much for starting the day off with some good motivation to study. . .