Ants and Life

 

Last night, I got gas at the BP station (Yikes!) and cleaned my windshield while the pump was running.  But on the way home, a big beetle flew into the clean windshield splattering his guts all over the glass.  Which reminds me of a joke.  Q: What was the last thing that went through the beetle’s mind when he hit the windshield?  A: His rear end.  OK, back to my story.  So, this morning, I got into the car at 8:30 am to go to the dialysis center to pick up Kathy and I noticed an ant eating breakfast … of bug guts.  Gross!  As I drove out of the subdivision, the wind blew across the windshield and the ant hung on for the ride of his life.  At each stop sign, he recovered, but hung on with all six of his legs as I got up to 55 mph on the parkway.  When I stopped at the dialysis center to wait for my dear wife, the ant began looking for his trail off the car.  He walked round and round sniffing for the pheromones that would lead him back to his colony.  He didn’t realize that he was two miles from home!  I actually felt a little sorry for him.  Hey, he was tenacious!  He did what he had to do for the good of his colony.  King Agur said in Proverbs 30:24&25, “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.”  And he was so right!  This little ant was tiny, but he hung on with all of his tiny might.  He found himself in a difficult situation, but he didn’t give up.  I wonder if I will be as tough today as this little ant was.  May the dear Lord help me to be tenacious today, like that little ant.

Don't Quit

Why are Asians better at math than Americans?  Well, actually, they aren’t.  Heard this week: the average American student gives up on a hard math problem in 5 minutes.  The same age Asian student gives up on the same hard math problem in 21 minutes.  It isn’t that Asians are better at math; it’s that they are more tenacious.  They just don’t give up.  Hey, what about you?  Are you easily discouraged?  Do you quit too soon?  Solomon said in Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again…” 

“Don’t Quit”  by Edgar Albert Guest

 

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

 

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow-

You may succeed with another blow.

 

Often the goal is nearer than,

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victor’s cup,

And he learned too late when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

 

Success is failure turned inside out-

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit-

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

 

Gladioluses

I have two bunches of gladioluses in front of my house.  They are only beautiful one week a year, but they hold a precious spot in my heart.  My daughter came home from college the summer just before her senior year and planted them.  She didn’t ask, she didn’t say that she was planting them, she just did.  I think she thought that they would be a good addition to our flower bed.  That was 1993, 29 years ago.  So, each spring, they come back up from the bulbs and I water them and watch over them, because my daughter planted them.  This August 22, Becky will turn 50 years old.  Yikes!  She can’t be that old because that would make me … well … really old.  But the truth is, I am really old.  David said in Psalm 127:1-4, “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it … It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD … As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.”  Those verses are spot on!  My daughter was born just before I turned 22 years old.  And now that I am 72, I was just a “youth” at 22 years old.  And my most important legacy is my children.  The dear Lord willing, my children will live long after I am gone.  And probably will the gladioluses in front of the house.  A great reminder.

 

Rules

When our children were young, we had to teach them everything.  I remember teaching my son what “hot” was.  I put his little hand on the stove and said “hot”.  Before you accuse me of neglect, it was the side of the stove, and it was only warm; not hot enough to burn him.  But he got the idea.  I pulled the car over to the side of the road and showed my two young children a dead dog.  I told them, “If you run out into the road, this might happen to you.  Don’t go into the road!”  They were wide-eyed and duly shocked.  Hey, did I do that to scare them?  Ye, I did.  I wanted them to be afraid of the road and what might happen to them if they went into the road.  Hey, God gives us warnings in His Word for the same reason.  God isn’t mean.  God doesn’t think up rules to make our lives miserable.  God loves us and wants us to be safe and happy.  God has good reasons for each of His commandments.  And if we follow His commandments, we will be happy.  Just like my children, God warns us of danger that will ruin our lives.  Solomon said in Proverbs 3:5&6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  Trust God.  Obey His Words, and you will live a happy life … in this world and in the world to come.