A Family Legacy and Self-Government

Proverbs 6:
6. Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
7. Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8. Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

Here is an interesting admonition. We have already noted in two places (Proverbs 12:1 and 30:2) that a man is considered to be like an animal when he acts without reasonable thought. Here we have the sluggard who not only doesn’t think, he also doesn’t act. The way he lives is worse than the animals and so he is sent to them to learn the importance of acting!

Now we all know that ants don’t think or plan or draw conclusions based on the weather patterns they observe. God created them to do what they do by instinct. Yet the fact that they do them, and their actions are the means for their survival, is an important lesson for us because we can observe and learn and plan. Actions have consequences.

Another interesting observation is that ants are organized into colonies where there is a division of labor, yet they are not directed by a guide, overseer or ruler. Here we are to learn, not that it would be good for us to operate on the basis of instinct, but rather that we need to learn to work on the basis of self-government.

"Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet." [Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the U. S. House]

It is not just that we need to show initiative, but that we need to learn to show initiative in doing the right thing. This self-government and self-direction is not only a learned discipline, but it proceeds from a heart and mind directed by God’s Word. This is the parents’ role in building a Family Legacy.

“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4)

This nurture and admonition of children is for the purpose of maturing them into adults whose self-government is directed by faith in and obedience to the Word of God. This is the stuff of which enduring Family Legacies are made.