One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.
“What!” cried the Ants in surprise, “haven’t you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?”
“I didn’t have time to store up any food,” whined the Grasshopper; “I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone.”
The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust.
“Making music, were you?” they cried. “Very well; now dance!” And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work.
Aesop wasn’t the only one to see the importance of diligence in our work. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 Paul writes: “10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.”
The grasshopper was busy all summer…but he was busy fiddling, not working. Diligence requires that we must be busy at work as the season requires, not just busybodies at whatever we fancy—otherwise, when winter comes, we’ll have nothing to eat. And that is as it should be.
Have a wonderful day.
