WISDOM FROM THE ANT

One of the foremost lessons that ants teach us is the need to be purposeful. Ants are a very organized and purpose – driven set of creatures. Every caste in a colony knows exactly what its job description is and what it should be engaged in at a particular time, and it sets out to do it without sluggishness or reluctance. For example, the queen ants are the founders of all colonies as a result of their stronger and larger nature. 

Soldier ants protect their colonies from attacks and also use their strength and mandibles to crack open hard seeds and carry larger objects. Although the worker ants are the smallest of the ants, they do the most work. It is the duty of some to forage for food from around the nest, some look after the queen and brood, while others maintain and expand the nest. Every ant understands its purpose and dedicates all its time and energy into achieving optimum success without necessarily being supervised. 

Purpose is a very important driving force in life. Just like the ants, you must understand the purpose of living, the purpose for which you are where you are and what ought to be done at a particular time. 

In addition, the ants are very intelligent creatures who work and clear foresight. Proverbs 6:8 tells us they prepare their food well ahead of time, knowing full well that time and seasons change, “Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.”

Like a person who has learnt to make hay while the sun shines, ants secure their food and store provisions during harvest time in summer, the warmest season of the year, in anticipation of the winter period, the coldest season of the year, when they may not find sufficient food. This is a clear contrast to the lazy person who “Sleepeth in harvest” (Proverbs 10:5), and engages in trivialities when he should actually be employed in productive enterprise. This is a vital lesson every Christian must learn.

It is important that you learn how to set your priorities right, and prepare yourself for the rainy day. In doing this, you must make sure that your priorities are not dictated by what you feel like doing at a particular time, but by what the most important thing to do is at the time. Just like the ants, the only and safest way to ensure that you maximize every moments and save yourself from the harrowing experiences of unforeseen or unexpected circumstances is to prepare yourself well ahead of time. Always be prepared for the coming of the Lord as well. 

No one is an island of knowledge and it is very true that everyone achieves more when they work as a team. Ants understand this; consequently, they work together as a team and for the team. 

Everything and anything an ant does is usually for the utmost benefit of the colony. Aside from their working together as a team, ants have a knack for sharing everything among themselves. For example, when an ant finds food, it leaves pheromone trails on the ground, on its way back to the colony, so that other ants can follow and locate it. 

The trail is then followed by other ants that thereafter reinforce the trail when they head back with food to the colony. They carry the food resource together and find their way back together. 

By the same token, you should be a team player as a Christian. Don’t be a lone ranger or isolate yourself from others and expect to achieve much. You should learn to work with other people in order to achieve your goals. Solicit and leverage on the help and wisdom of other Christians where necessary, in order to personally achieve something more substantial for the overall good of the kingdom of God. 

Living only for yourself and by yourself is not the way to go. A man of God acronym the word TEAM as together everybody achieve much, while the Holy Scriptures say, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour… and a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9,12). Working successfully as a team, however, demands patience, respect for one another, accepting the opinion of others, tolerance, communication and humility. Teamwork also allows Christians to serve one another. 

This entails looking away from oneself and contributing positively to the lives of others. Paul the apostle exhorts all Christians in Galatians 6:2, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” When ants in a colony are infected somehow by a fungal disease, they quickly spread the disease throughout the colony by licking it off one another. Each ant receives as much of the disease as its individual immune system can resist and overcome effectively. 

Ants are also epitome of industry. Although they are small and feeble creatures, they employ great diligence in providing their own food: travelling far distances, climbing over trees, walls, high and low places, and everywhere they can get their food. In the course of foraging, they are not hindered by obstacles or disappointments; rather, they find a way to solve their problems, and then keep going until they succeed. For instance, if a marked path to a food source is blocked by an obstacle, foraging ants don’t just give up and turn back. 

They only leave the path to explore new routes to the food source. Any ant that is successful returns to the colony to inform the others, leaving a new trail to mark out the new route. Thereafter, more ants follow the new route, reinforcing it better until the job is done.

Moreover, an ant can lift an object an object twenty times its weight. In a documentary aired by the BBC, ants were seen constructing a makeshift rafter to cross a flooded area in a forest. At another time, they were seen building a bridge to allow the queen ant and its young ones to cross a swamp area. The bridge in question was made up of leaves and the ants themselves. That’s industry; that’s dexterity; that’s the ability to get a task done, no matter how daunting it seems. Proverbs 6:7-8 tells us that ants are self-starters; they get down to work without supervision or coercion: “Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.”

They don’t have any supervisor pushing them around or urging them on before they get their work done. Don’t wait to be commended, given incentives, urged, prodded or even threatened into action before you get your work done. Always take initiatives, be self-motivated, be resourceful and have the drive and passion to accomplish your tasks. 

Finally, success in life isn’t based on physical stature, strength or significance but on wisdom and hard work. This is one of the important life – lessons the ant teaches us. It is tiny, feeble and a seemingly insignificant animal, yet it accomplishes so much because it is wise and industrious. 

In summary, the scriptures didn’t say you should learn what the ant does and do the same. Rather, it counsels you to learn wisdom from it and do better as a higher creature of God.