Striking a Balance: Things I've learned from ants...

A few weeks ago, my kids decided they needed ant farms.  My son brought me enough money for one, and I ordered it for him.  My daughter was also desperate for one, so she brought me money and I ordered her one, too. 

They arrived a few days later and the ants followed soon after.  These aren’t ant farms like the ones I grew up with.  Instead of sand in a very tall skinny ant farm, these are much thicker and shorter, and they’re filled with blue gel.  The gel is interesting: it is both food and water for the ants, and they can move it just like sand.  Lights in the farm, coupled with the transparency of the gel allow you to see the ants in their tunnels anywhere in the ant farm.  This means that when I dumped the ants into the ant farm, they immediately had both food and water.  They didn’t need anything else to live.  And yet, they immediately began to make tunnels. 

I thought over the next few days about our lives, and the parallels.  Many years ago, humans worked from daybreak until sunset in order to meet their basic needs.  In this day and age, most people can earn enough to meet their basic needs in just five days a week, roughly eight hours a day.  Life has grown easier.  Some people can earn a living in even less time. In fact, if we don't work at all, the government will make sure we don't starve.

But like the ants, humans need work to be happy.  There have been a lot of times during my life that I’ve thought I would be better off if I could only get a break.  I have been desperate for vacation, for recreation, or for some kind of time off.  That being said, I have always known that the break was beneficial specifically because I had been working hard.  Like those ants, we need to be working, building tunnels, being productive to find purpose in this life.  We may have food and water, but the human soul requires more. 

I thought this was the lesson the ants were meant to teach me.

I was wrong. 

As the weeks have passed, I have noticed something else.  The ants never take a break.  They attack the building of more tunnels with a single minded ferocity, dare I say, as though they have tunnel vision.  I do strongly believe that work helps us grow, and it shapes us.  It brings us joy.  However, I have also felt very strongly that we may all be as misguided as those little ants sometimes.  We can become focused on building tunnels to the exclusion of all else.  The type of tunnel we are building varies widely from person to person.  Your tunnel may be money, facebook, career advancement, notoriety, home remodeling/decorating, or acquisition of baby clothes. I have been struggling with buying too many baby clothes lately... HA!  There are so many, many tunnels we can build.  Only you can identify yours.

In my life, I’ve been building tunnels lately.  And missing out on time I could be spending focused on what matters most: scripture reading, prayer and time with my family.

The scriptures are quite clear on this point.  In the Book of Matthew, the Savior says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” 

He doesn’t say that you can’t build tunnels, but we are instructed to build up the kingdom of God first.  In the same chapter, Christ also says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” 

This week, my point is very simple.  You need to work, and you need to be productive, but a balance must be struck.  Build tunnels, but leave yourself time for what matters even more.  To me, that means you go to church, you read your scriptures and say your prayers, and you make time for family.  You talk to your family, teach them the things of God and have fun with them.  These are the things that build God’s kingdom. 

Take a lesson from the ants.  Build those tunnels, but take a bit of time to thank your Heavenly Father for His help in building them, and spend some time enjoying them and the world around you, too.

Kids do such a great job at remembering to enjoy what is right in front of them.