I remember the first time my family filed our taxes after I became self-employed.  My husband who was doing our taxes at that time was amazed at how much more we had to pay in taxes.  "Self-employed" implied I was my own boss, and therefore I was more accountable and had to pay for some of the things I took for granted when I was an employee.  I jokingly asked my husband if there was a place on the form that we could counteract my "self employed" status with his "employed...by over a hundred bosses" status... and the fact that some of his bosses could be very demanding and about half of them had different ideas about what he should be doing each day.  That should count for something with the IRS!  We both had a good laugh.

 

Jokes aside, we are all accountable, in one way or another, to someone else for the job that we do.  Solomon tells us there is a lesson we can learn from the ant.  He doesn't have anyone looking over his shoulder, no Pastor-Congregation Committee, no Boss-Employee job requirements, yet he gets done what needs to be done.  Why?  Because the ant, by nature, doesn't allow himself to get sidetracked; he has a firm grip on what is most important in an ant's life.  He gathers his food and stores his food and makes certain he can feed himself and his little ant family.  He knows the most important thing to do, and he does it.

 

We could learn from the ant.  Regardless of how many people are looking over our shoulder, we're accountable to God for own actions, and it is up to each one of us to do what is most important.  If you search your heart, and if you search the will of God, you can know what is most important for you to do today.  Chances are, you already know.