Growing Together By Ewald & Beatrix van RensburgSample

Faith like an ant

Best and worst

Give everyone a chance to talk about the best and worst moments of their day.

Where did you encounter Jesus today?

Talk to each other about how each family member encountered Jesus, and about something or someone that reminded them of Him.

• Find a place where you can observe ants at work. How would you describe them?

• Read Nehemiah 1:4–11; 4:6. What can we learn about faith from these verses?

Thought for the day

If you store God’s Word in your mind the way ants store food, you will be able to hear God’s voice above all the humdrum noise of life! Quite a few of the believers in the Bible exhibited ant-like faith, but the one who really stands out has to be Nehemiah. Like an ant, he worked furiously towards his goal, namely to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem! Just look at the ants: they work with a purpose. Indeed, their hearts are in their work. Nehemiah’s heart was in his work because of his religious convictions. 

Nehemiah believed in his work. He believed that he was doing the right thing. That’s why he rolled up his sleeves and put his heart into it. He believed in himself; in other words, he could act with confidence because he had a healthy self-image. Nehemiah believed in his people. He sincerely loved this tiny Jewish community, and believed that the world could learn something from their way of living. Lastly and most importantly, he believed in God. Nehemiah talked to God wherever he went—have a look at his prayer in Nehemiah 1:4–11.

Activity

As a family, watch the classic animation movie Antz together. Afterwards, discuss the pertinent topics and what each family member learned from it.

Prayer

Make the decision to follow Jesus with an ant-like faith. Commit yourself by asking God to give each of you a heart that is pure, humble, loving, faithful and zealous.

Random act of kindness

Write something nice on someone’s Facebook wall.

For parents only

Let the following become true of you as a parent: “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone” (Col. 4:6, NLT).