By Brad T. Bromling

A wise man once wrote, “go learn from the ant.” That sounds a bit strange. What can we learn from ants? They are small, quiet, and seem unimportant. Most of their work is hidden from sight. Some are even pests; their mounds give us problems. So what can we learn from ants?

The ants in the proverb are called harvester ants. The gather seeds at harvest time and carry them to their nests where they store them for food. This way, when plants are no longer producing seeds, the ants have something to eat. Harvester ants dry their seeds in the sun so that they won’t mildew in their nests. They remove the tough husk from the seed and make “ant bread” from the soft kernel which they eat. It the ants were lazy and didn’t store seeds, they would starve in winter.

The wise man was using ants to teach a lesson about laziness (read Proverbs 6:6-11). A lazy person will “sleep in” and lay around today—without giving any thought about tomorrow. But in time, laziness has a way of catching up with us and we find ourselves in need. This holds true in many areas of our lives. The studying we do tonight will show up on how well we do on the test tomorrow. The work our dads’ do will lead to a pay check. The efforts of Christians to teach the bible will make the world a better place and help people go to heaven someday. So, let’s be like the ants: busy today making preparations for tomorrow.

Discovery Magazine January 1995 pg. 5