By Rebecca Fix
“Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain,
Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.”
—Proverbs 6:6-8
When I was little, my grandparents had a farm, and my sister and I would go there often and help feed all the animals. I remember one day; I was jumping on ants on the sidewalk. My grandma looked at me mad as ever and explained to me how they were God’s creatures and how they were here for a reason and to never hurt anything God made. She told me to put myself in place of the ant. Would I want to be stepped on if I were small?
I see this passion for all animals in my son. He knows about every bug and wants no harm to come to any of them. We can learn so much from a little creature like the ant.
- Ants are always moving. They are energetic and work efficiently. I’ve never seen an ant rest—they go right to work and do not stop till the job is finished.
- Ants are also selfless. If a leaf is too big for one ant to carry, the other ants chip in to help. They are committed to helping their friends succeed.
- Ants know what needs to be done without being supervised. They know there will come a time when gathering won’t be possible so they store up to prepare for the future.
In today’s society, laziness is becoming more acceptable (perhaps even incentivized), but this passage shows us that being lazy will ultimately lead to devastation. Do we have a self-driven work ethic like ants or do we expect things to always be done for us? Do we set aside money for a time when we might not be able to work or do we receive a paycheck and spend it all immediately. A wise man understands the need for hard work and being frugal just like the ant. Consider the wisdom of God in his creation. Maybe God knew what he was doing when he created the ant—to help us learn because He knew a time would come with laziness would rule the world.