Poor Conceptions

(Proverbs 13:23 KJV)  Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

This morning I seem to be wearing the hat of a teacher and under that hat a figurative picture emerges for me in this verse.  How much potential is hidden in the “poor” (7326) classes?  One of the big stereotypes put out by politicians is the effect of income on success in school and other areas of life.  They like to act like being poor is why some people don’t achieve.  They blame crime and health on poverty.  The problem is that if poverty caused crime then the time of the Great Depression would have seen a crime wave to end all crime waves.  It didn’t happen.

Can the poor be helped?  How much could they do if they had an opportunity?  I think most of us are on board with the concept of equal opportunity but it is easily manipulated by nanny state people to mean special opportunity for chosen sub-groups.  If equal opportunity is the answer then how do you explain children from the same neighborhoods and families who go such different routes?

How much could they do if they had the drive?  Why do they lack the drive?  There are many questions.

So?  We should assume that since all human beings were created in the image of God that there is the potential for “much food” to be found in that quality.  It is crippled and destroyed by sin but with the application of grace and the attitude of repentance the fallow ground can blossom.