{"id":603,"date":"2020-08-06T14:50:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T19:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/?p=603"},"modified":"2022-12-19T13:25:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T19:25:06","slug":"leadership-lessons-from-an-ant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/leadership-lessons-from-an-ant\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership lessons from an ant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever paused to observe the ant at work? Able to carry up to 50 times its body weight, the ant is a powerful and fascinating creature. Ants live everywhere in the world\u2014from the dry plains of Africa to the rainforests of South America. Some colonies build tall towering structures with elaborate chambers and tunnels while others are nomads and always scouring for the next food source. There are fire ants, black ants, pavement ants, carpenter ants, electric ants, Sahara Desert ants and even suicide ants (Yes, that is right, when losing a fight they will blow themselves up by flexing their abdomen and bursting, spraying poison on their enemy and killing them both.) Researchers estimate that there are probably around 10,000 trillion ants in the world. Wow!<\/span><\/p>\n

Proverbs 6:6-8 states:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTake a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.\u201d <\/span><\/i>(NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

What might the Bible mean when it says \u201c<\/span>take a lesson<\/span><\/i>\u201d from the ant? Are we being encouraged to learn to work together? To be resourceful? To have more strength? What is it about the ant world that God says we should learn?<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are 3 leadership lessons I believe we can learn from Proverbs 6 and the ways of the ant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ants as our teachers<\/h4>\n
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  1. Ants don\u2019t wander<\/strong>.<\/strong> Ants are incredible workers, and they are always moving towards their goal. They never wander from their task, and they dedicate their lives to serving their colony.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you are like me, you realize that it can be easy to become distracted. To have \u201clazybones\u201d days where your work ethic, parenting, or spiritual growth is sidetracked by outside influences. Proverbs encourages each of us to live and lead as God meant for us to live\u2014with focus, conviction, and purpose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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    1. Ants communicate and collaborate<\/strong>.<\/strong> Through their little antennae, ants register touch, sound, and the pheromones of other ants. A colony of ants has mastered the art of communicating their plans and working together to accomplish it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Leaders must communicate and facilitate healthy collaboration. <\/span>Since we don’t have antennae, we need to learn to speak and write clearly, practice active listening, and be willing to have difficult conversations when needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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      1. Ants sacrifice for the sake of the other<\/strong>.<\/strong> Verse 8 says: \u201c<\/span>they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.\u201d<\/span><\/i> What\u2019s amazing is that the normal life expectancy of an ant is only about 90 days; at the most, some live up to six months. If that is the case, the ants who gather food in the summer probably don\u2019t enjoy it in the winter. Instead their labor is for the survival of others.\u00a0 I think there are two lessons here for us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n