Working Smart?

'Go to the ant,you sluggard; consider her ways,and be wise'. I'm not sure that there is any creature created by God that is smaller than the ant. Yet, its work rate is amazing. You see a deep sense of organisation and order without any visible sign of coercion or leadership. Each knows what to do, the best time to do it and how best to do it in order to achieve the ultimate aim of the colony. None works for itself; none shirks responsibility. Each contributes to the centre so that when the need arises,the stored-up contribution can give back to the need of each one.
No wonder then that we are asked to go and learn from the ways of the ant. What lessons can we garner from them:
1. Ants work during harvest: Ants are known to gather food in summer while the harvest is ripe. There is a right time for everything and even the best of intentions will not help you once you do not do the right thing at the right time. Even sleep can be an obstacle if done at the wrong time.
2. Ants save for the future: I once saw an ant drag part of a cube of sugar over several obstacles,corners and temptations just to get it to the storehouse of food. It could have eaten it when tired but there was a task to be done and there had to be no rest till it was accomplished. It could have given up after several trials but it kept going back to it. When it became too heavy, it broke the cube further so it could carry it bit by bit. How many of us have quit at the first sign of disappointment? How many had turned back and simply refused to write an exam again simply because they failed once? Did you consider that maybe that experience could be part of the seeds God could use forr your future good? We work so hard and give in so easily and we wonder why our lives are the way we are.
3. No excuses for failure: I'm not sure there's any ant who knows his father or mother. I'm not sure education was important to their work ethic. I just know that whatever had to be done was done well and done right. They didn't wait for the economy to get better before they worked and saved for the future; they worked and saved with what they had NOW. Too many times, we get caught dreaming about what might have been or What ifs. Truth is, why not work now with what you have now,while God works out the eventual end of your efforts? You cannot predict how what you do now will end but what I do know is that if there's zero effort from me, God's 100% multiplication on my effort will still amount to zero.
I must therefore work hard and work smart, keeping in mind that nothing I do is in vain. It is when I fold my hands and do nothing that all my labour will be in vain.
May my life produce the fruit God intends and may the work of my hands lead to the blessing and increase of others. His time of favour is here.