The New York–based Families and Work Institute (www.familiesandwork.org), in its new study on the quality of American employment, found that Americans are working harder today than they did 25 years ago. Two-career couples averaged 81 hours a week in 1977, compared with 91 hours today. Self-employed workers tend to earn more than those with regular wage jobs—$58,000 a year, on average, compared to $45,000. The most successful group, financially, are small business owners, averaging $110,000 a year, and they also report more job creativity and satisfaction in life. But they also tend to work longer hours—38 percent of them work more than 50 hours a week.

Proverbs 24:27 says to "prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourself in the field; and afterward build your house." In other words, prepare yourself for your "field" of employment first so that you will be able to provide for home and family later. But God also cautions against overwork. He tells us in the Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:9-11) that we are to do all our work in six days a week, and to leave the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship. And we are not to become workaholics and neglect our families.