Proverbs 27

I'm going to start simple and easy. I've always loved Proverbs (I have a very analytical mind) and how it's short pity passages speak volumes of truth. Sometimes they make sense; sometimes they are just cool to read. There are 31 Proverbs so I've always just read the one that matches the current day of the month. I wonder if God actually planed it that seeing as our current "day counting" scheme was invented by the Romans¹ or if it was a coincidence?

I guess 27.14 is the verse that most stands out to me today.

If you wake your friend in the early morning
by shouting "Rise and shine!"
It will sound to him
more like a curse than a blessing.

I've got three children and every morning I have to wake them up to get ready for school. They really don't like being woken up; even after having 8+ hours of sleep. I can see it in their faces and hear it in the voices as I wake them up. They really see it as more of a curs than a blessing to be waking up. I'm sure they also just love going to school too.

But as I reread this verse I'm thinking that it's not talking about the situation I just mentioned. It sounds more like where you're fast asleep and your friend comes in a wakes you up with that ultra cheerful, almost unnatural cheerfulness. It's not the fact that your friend woke you but how they did it; the fact that they used such emphases, such an enthusiasms thats not natural. This I have experienced at work.

Every now and then when I get to work I'm not really awake or the whole waking/getting ready experience with the kids was not pleasant and left me in a foul mood. Then comes in that coworker that seems to always been ultra cheerful and starts to smother you with "love" and "blessings". All I can think is "Please go away, you're not helping". It's true what the ultra cheerful person considers a blessing to give can sometimes be too much and actually be taken as a curse. It's not that what the ultra cheerful person is doing is wrong it's just too much at the wrong time. If you try to water your new law with a fire hose you're going to wash all of the grass way. Sometimes a small trickle of water does more good than a blasting fire hose.