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This is a story that I read about a woman who became addicted to gambling, and there's so many lessons in this story, and I've got a lot of Bible scriptures that I'm going to point to that illuminate this story, but I read a story, and this is a true story about a woman who became addicted to gambling. Now this woman was a housewife, she'd been married for over a decade, she had three daughters, and she was just a stay-at-home mom, and her youngest of three daughters had just started kindergarten a couple weeks ago. So she's bored, right, because until then she always had little kids that she's dealing with. Well, her youngest child starts kindergarten, and two weeks later she's just bored out of her mind. I mean, she's just sitting at home, she doesn't know what to do, she's got no kids to take care of, her husband's at work ten hours a day, the kids are at school, and she's just sitting there bored out of her mind, she doesn't want to watch the soap opera, she doesn't know what to do. And so she just sat there and just stared at the clock, and just kept looking at the clock, just waiting for them to get home, and finally she taped a piece of paper over the clock to cover up the clock, just so that she wouldn't even think about it. And it was 1030 in the morning, and she decided, you know what, at 12 o'clock I'm going to go somewhere, I'm going to go do something. So for the next hour and a half she sat there and racked her brain and tried to figure out, you know, where am I going to go, what am I going to do? So noon rolls around, she gets all dressed up nice, puts on a little makeup, and she decides to go to a casino that's 20 minutes from her house. So she goes to the casino and she gets the shrimp at the buffet, you know, she goes there and it's kind of a fun atmosphere and everything like that. And she goes to the blackjack table, didn't even know how to play. And she sits down and the dealer explains to her, okay, here's how the game works. And she sat down and she played, and she only had 40 bucks in her wallet. You know, so she took out the 40 bucks cash, she played until she lost all of it. You know, she just played through 40 bucks, she didn't really know what she was doing. And so she played through the 40 bucks and she looked down at her watch and it had been two hours and it was time to pick up her daughter at school. So she left, you know, she spent 40 bucks, she had a good time, it was really fun and she thought it was cool. And so she went and picked up her kid at school and, you know, no big deal. So then she decided, she said she's just going to go once a week, every Friday, as a reward for making it through the week, doing everything she was supposed to do, you know, taking care of the kids, taking care of her husband. Once a week, every Friday, she's going to go to the casino. And she had really strict rules because she knew that, you know, gambling can be dangerous and can be addictive. So she decided, I'm never going to leave the house before noon and I'm always going to be done in time to go pick up the kids at school, which is just a couple hours later. And I'm only going to spend one hour at the blackjack table and I'm only going to just spend whatever cash is in my wallet. You know, I'm not going to use the ATM or a credit card or anything, you know, I'm just going to, whatever cash is in my wallet, that's what I'm going to spend, it's just going to be entertainment. I mean, I'm just going to blow the money. She's not trying to win anything, you know, she's just going to use up the money and go through it, no big deal. And she did that, she followed that for like six months. You know, for like six months, she just went every Friday. Just really healthy habit of just, every Friday she plays for one hour and she's getting better at it, she's learning more, she's having fun, she's only going one day a week, no big deal. Now first of all, let me just stop the story for a second and point out some things about the story. Okay, number one, what was the original problem that led to this whole thing even starting? Boredom and idleness. Okay, and what does the Bible say about idleness? Well first of all, in Proverbs 30, you don't have to turn there, but in Proverbs 31, the Bible talks about the woman who is the homemaker, who is taking care of the household, and one of the things that it points out about her in Proverbs 31, 27 is, she looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. See, if a woman is doing her job as a homemaker, she's not going to be that bored to want to just stare at the clock and, you know, watch soap operas and just not know what to do. First of all, if she'd been raising her own children instead of sending them to school, she'd be very busy teaching them, instructing, I mean why would you drop your kid off to be taught by someone else and then you just sit there bored, I don't know what to do. Why don't you raise your kid? Why don't you teach your child? Okay, not only that, but I guarantee you she's not cooking from scratch. I mean she could have been grinding flour and baking bread and making some more complicated meals that probably would have been healthier for the family. Okay, well that's boring. Okay raise your kid, okay cook, clean, plant a garden, with the fruit of her hand she planted the vineyard. Well that's all boring, well whatever, that's life. And you know what, I don't think it's boring to homeschool your children. You could teach them all kinds of interesting things, you could teach them all kinds of interesting subjects. And you could cook all kinds of fun meals and do all kinds of things as a homemaker. And by the way, you could be reading your Bible. I remember when my wife and I were first married before we had kids, you know my wife had a lot of excess free time. She volunteered down at the church. She went through my pastor's voicemails that had been racked up, oh man, if somebody went through my voicemails it would take years, but anyway, you know she went through his voicemails and she would read whole books of the Bible. She'd read Second Kings and First Chronicles, you know she was newly saved so she did a ton of Bible reading. She'd go out soul winning, she's praying, she's volunteering at the church, she's cooking, you know, three meals from scratch. You know idleness is not because there's nothing to do, because there's plenty of good things to do with your time. It's just we make wrong choices that lead us to idleness and God here specifically talks about a homemaker that's a virtuous woman that she does not eat the bread of idols. So that was the first mistake, right? You think about King David. Why did King David fall into sin with Bathsheba? Because at the time of year when kings go forth to war, he stayed behind. He's not doing his job as king, he's not in the battle, he's letting someone else do his job for him, next thing you know he's looking out the window at Bathsheba, okay? First Timothy chapter 5, go there if you would, first Timothy chapter 5. So she's playing blackjack every Friday just for an hour. Well after about six months she's getting really good at blackjack so she's not running out of money. You know she comes in there with 20 bucks, 40 bucks, 60 bucks, she got to where she could make her money last a lot more than an hour because she got better at playing the game, she started figuring out the odds and how to play and so forth. So pretty soon she decided to adjust her rules a little bit, you know, because one hour she's not even going through any money so she decided, you know, I'm going to adjust my rules, why not play for two or three hours? I mean this is six months into it. Two or three hours because she could make the cash in her wallet last for at least two or three hours, okay? Look down at First Timothy chapter 5 there, verse 13, it says, With all they learn to be idle, talking about women who basically are not married or raising kids. It says, With all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan. So do we see here how idleness can be a dangerous thing? We've got to stay busy if we're going to keep our minds and hearts right. I mean my mom always told me as a kid, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. And so if you're, you might be a wife that doesn't have a lot to do, you need to find stuff to do, you know, read the Bible, pray, find friends to spend time and not tattling and being a busybody, but going soul winning or cooking or doing something productive, reading, studying, whatever. But do, you know, exercise, whatever, but do something productive and don't be idle. Do something to stay busy on good things.