187 Sermon Illustrations on Perseverance

"A black church in Kansas City has as its slogan:

WAKE UP, SING UP, PREACH UP, PRAY UP AND PAY UP - BUT NEVER GIVE

UP OR LET UP OR BACK UP OR SHUT UP UNTIL THE CAUSE OF CHRIST IN

THIS CHURCH AND IN THIS WORLD IS BUILT UP."

--Evangelistic Illustration

Comment on \reference{Ephesians 6:14}{Ephesians 6:14} "Stand

therefore...!"

"There are many angles at which you will fall,

but only ONE where you may stand straight."

So choose to stand God's way!

In one of the British Provinces, a meeting had been in progress for

nearly four weeks. Six or eight churches had worked together heartily

and yet but little had been developed. I was pressed beyond measure to

come to their assistance, and did go and preached twice.

It was evident from the first meeting that much had been done, and

yet the work was like a smouldering fire that needed a draft opened.

I staid but one day, and yet in that one day not less than one

hundred and fifty men and women were brought into Christ's kingdom,

and afterwards united with the churches.

I speak of this to show how near to a great blessing a meeting, or

church, or an individual may come and yet not obtain it.

A man in the early gold fever, in California, had taken up a claim,

and satisfying himself where a gold lode or vein was located,

commenced drilling, and continued until he had spent all his own money

and all his wife had, and all he had credit to borrow, and yet the

rich treasure he sought was not reached.

Becoming disheartened, he left his drill in the rock, went to his

house and killed his wife and daughter, and then himself. After his

death, friends pulled his drill from the rock loaded with rich gold.

Had he pulled his drill out once more, this great wealth had been his.

So with those seeking the pearl of great price, just at the point of

success, they fail for the want of one effort more, one stroke more,

one step further. While on the other hand, like the meeting alluded

to, that one more effort is made and the great blessing is secured.

Friends, pray again, and if the blessing does not come, yet like

Christ, pray three hours, "Saying the same words." Or, like Jacob, "I

will not let thee go except thou bless me." -- A. B. Earle, From:

"Incidents Used ... In His Meetings," published in 1888

During the civil war a young man by the name of John Hartman was missing after the battle. His old father asked permission to go out on the battle field and search for his son. During the afternoon he went among the dead and dying, but the search was in vain.

Finally darkness came on, and he secured a lantern and continued the search. Toward midnight the wind arose and the lantern would not burn. He was perplexed, but he decided upon this plan: He would walk over the battlefield and stop every few minutes and cry as loudly as possible, “John Hartman, thy father calleth thee.” Then he would listen, go a little farther, and call again.

The storm grew more fierce but he continued his search, which seemed in vain. In the late hours of the night, off on one side, he faintly called again, “John Hartman, thy father calleth thee.” He listened. Amid the groans of the wounded he heard a faint voice, “Here I am father.” He had found him. While he was almost exhausted, he managed to get his son back to headquarters where attention could be given. He was faithful in attending him and finally he was well.

Love is resourceful. Love holds on and will find a way. If we loved Jesus and souls more, I wonder if we would not rescue many more.

________

William Moses Tidwell, “Effective Illustrations.”

================

Another version:

Major Whittle used to tell the story of the aged Quaker named Hartman, whose son had enlisted in the army. There came the news of a dreadful battle, and this old father, in fear and trembling, started to the scene of conflict that he might learn something concerning his boy. The officer of the day told him that he had not answered to his name, and that there was every reason to believe that he was dead. This did not satisfy the father, so, leaving headquarters, he started across the battlefield, looking for the one who was dearer to him than life. He would stoop down and turn over the face of this one and then the face of another, but without success.

The night came on, and then He continued his search with a lantern. Suddenly the wind, which was blowing a gale, extinguished his lantern, and he stood there in the darkness hardly knowing what to do until his father's ingenuity, strength and affection prompted him to call out his son's name, and so he stood and shouted, “John Hartman, thy father calleth thee.” All about him he would hear the groans of the dying and some one saying: “Oh, if that were only my father.”

He continued his cry with more pathos and power until at last in the distance he heard his boy's voice crying tremblingly, “Here, father.” The old man made his way across the field shouting out, “Thank God! Thank God!” Taking him in his arms, he bore him to headquarters, nursed him back to health and strength, and he lives today.

________

Tidwell, 1,000 Illustrations

=====================

Another version, this time occuring in the California Gold Rush:

In the early pioneer days around Chicago there lived a fine Quaker family by the name of Hartman. John, one of the sons, had grown to manhood, and was then about nineteen years of age. One day he and his father had a violent quarrel, which was a very unusual occurrence in that family of peace-lovers. It was so serious that the father ordered the son to leave home. John, then as large and as tall as his father, arose and promised, “Father, I'll go and will never return until I have a personal invitation from you.” John decided to go West in search of work, and so with pick and shovel he found a wagon train that was heading out for California, where gold had been discovered.

Only a few days had passed when the heartbroken father came to himself and remorsefully acknowledged his mistake. He decided to go in search of his son. He sold some of his stock to provide means for his wife and family and for him to make the trip. He learned that his boy had gone West; heading for California. Soon he was tramping from one camp to another, only to find that his John had left each camp just ahead of him.

Finally, with money spent, he realized that he must return home. But an idea came to him as he rounded a bend and noticed an overhanging ledge of rock. “I will paint a message upon the rocks inviting John to come home,” he thought. And so he did-again and again and again. With a prayer in his heart that his son would come along that trail before the wind and the weather effaced the writing, the father headed back to Chicago. By providence, young John was making his way along the trail when suddenly he noticed the words: “John Hartman, your father loves you. Come home!” He bit his lip and went on stubbornly, but there it was again: “John Hartman, your father loves you. Come home!” The message got to him.

“Father must have loved me a great deal to come way out here and write this message where everyone could see it,” John opined. “I'm going home!” And he did.

Friend, Jesus Christ came a lot farther than from Chicago to California to save you. He came all the way from the glory world down to this sin-cursed earth. Upon every blade of grass, every tree, and every flower He has written the message: “Your heavenly Father loves you. Come home!” Finally with His own blood on Calvary's cross He wrote it: “Your Father loves you. Come home!”

________

L. E. Tucker; Source: These Times, Copyright (c) November 1974, Pacific Press, http://www.signstimes.com

When you've set your mind to do it, When your judgment says you're

right, When your conscience gives it sanction, Then pitch in with all

your might.

Don't let anything prevent you, Thought the odds seem big and strong,

Every obsticle will vanish As the swift days roll along - If you set

your jaws and say, "Well, I'll do it anyway."

Bunyan’s conception that the way to the celestial city lay through the slough of despond, over the hill of difficulty, and beyond the valley of the shadow of death was not a haphazard guess nor the fancy freak of an over-excited brain. It was a conception true to the nature of things -- a conviction in harmony with human nature and earthly environment.

It is the sharp click of the steel against the flint that “makes the fire fly.” So it is the contact of heroic souls with great obstacles and repeated failures that brings out the true grit that is in them. Ordinary men yield to difficulties and abandon their purposes because of one or two failures, while to the extraordinary these are but the fuel that fires the flame of their ambition, but the athletic sport that develops the muscle essential to the performance of extraordinary feats on the day of exhibition.

Not until he had failed three times as a lecturer and had passed his forty-fifth year, did that most renowned of all American humorists, Josh Billings, achieve fame. Many of Edwin Booth’s first efforts on the stage were flat failures. The early poetic aspirations of James Russell Lowell were crushed by the merciless criticism of Margaret Fuller. The first years of Washington’s career as commander-in-chief of the Continental army were conspicuous for his defeats. Not until his masterly strategic move on Trenton did his achievements begin to augur hope of success.

General Grant retired from the army after the Mexican War, and failed in every business pursuit in which he engaged. But for the great Civil War he might have died in obscurity, and the world never have known of the superhuman capabilities as a commander of armies that were stowed away in his brain. And right here come to mind the beautiful, suggestive lines of Thomas Gray:

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

But to all these great souls, with many others that might be named, failure was only discipline. They held themselves together; they kept their courage and their common sense well in hand; they continued to do the best they could each day. Then, when the opportunity came, with their powers thoroughly disciplined by the experiences and failures through which they had passed, they took hold and achieved greatness by doing great things.

So it is not so much the genius to do brilliant things at the first effort, but the genius to keep on trying to do something that wins in the race of life. Professor Hutton, of the School of Mines in Columbia University, rates the students who learn slowly and with much effort much higher than he does the “smart boys” who master their lessons with but little struggle. And why? Because the slow students are workers and stick to their work. They are early schooled in the important exercise of surmounting difficulties by much honest effort.

It is given out as a fact that of all the West Point students who graduated at the head of their respective classes prior to the Civil War Robert E. Lee was the only one who became a great general. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and others who achieved renown in that war as commanders ranked quite low down. This is stated not to discourage the students who take first honors, nor to dissuade students from striving for such honors, but to encourage the great mass of boys and girls who master the lessons of the books slowly and with difficulty. The extra effort required to make amends for lack of aptness is often the very thing needed to develop a genius for honest, thorough work; and after all, that is the genius that wins in the long race of life.

The admonition of Park Benjamin fits in right here:

“Press on! there’s no such word as fail;

Press nobly on! the goal is near --

Ascend the mountain! breast the gale!

Look upward, onward -- never fear!

Why shouldst thou faint? Heaven smiles above,

Though storm and vapor intervene;

The sun shines on, whose name is Love,

Serenely o’er life’s shadow’d scene.

“Press on! If Fortune play thee false

Today, tomorrow she’ll be true;

Whom now she sinks she now exalts,

Taking old gifts and granting new.

The wisdom of the present hour

Makes up for follies past and gone;

To weakness strength succeeds, and power

From frailty springs - press on! press on!”

________

J. Wilbur Chapan, “Present Day Parables.”

Are you discouraged because the work that God has called you to do

is off to a slow start? Remember, some of our most wonderful

inventions got off to slow starts as well.

The first electric light was so dim that a candle was needed to see

its socket. One of the first steamboats took 32 hours to chug its way

from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles. Wilbur and Orville

Wright's first airplane flight lasted only 12 seconds. And the first

automobiles traveled 2 to 4 miles per hour and broke down often.

Carriages would pass them with their passengers often shouting, "Get a

horse!" But look at what these inventions are capable of today.

The loss of Fort Washington opened the way to New Jersey. British

forces under Maj. Gen. Charles Cornwallis quickly poured in. General

Washington had left part of his army to protect New England. The rest

sought safety behind the Delaware River.

Howe did not pursue Washington. Instead, he ordered his men into

winter quarters, and assigned Maj. Gen. Sir Henry Clinton to seize

Newport, R. I. The British had assigned Hessian troops to garrison

Trenton, N. J. Washington's reinforced army launched a three-column

attack on the Hessians. Men under Col. John Glover (1732-1797)

ferried one attacking force across the ice-clogged Delaware River on

Christmas night, 1776. These troops assembled swiftly, then silently

marched toward Trenton.

They took the Hessians by surprise and captured 1,000 prisoners on

December 26. After some hesitation, Washington took his entire army

across the Delaware. But Cornwallis' stronger army advancing toward

Trenton endangered the American positions there. Washington marched

south, then east around Cornwallis during the night of Jan. 2, 1777.

The following day, he won a brilliant victory at Princeton, defeating

some redcoats marching to join Cornwallis.

In the leaflet Keep on Keeping On, Leslie B. Flynn tells of a man

who handed out gospel tracts on a street corner. After years of not

seeing anyone trust Christ as Savior, he quit.

Two years later he happened to pass that same familiar corner and

saw a person handing out tracts. He walked over to the stranger and

struck up a conversation. He learned that a little more than 2 years

earlier the man had become a Christian after reading a tract he had

received at that corner.

"Many a time I've come back here to find the man to thank him,"

said the stranger, "but he never came back. So I decided he must have

died and gone to his reward. That's why I've taken his place!"

If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, God will give you by His

Spirit the power to persevere. Don't give up. Keep up the good work!

It happened in Southwest Asia in the 14th Century. The army of Asian conqueror Emperor Tamerlane (a descendant of Ghengis Khan) has been routed, dispersed by a powerful enemy. Tamerlane himself lay hidden in a deserted manger while enemy troops scoured the countryside. As he lay there, desperate and dejected, Tamerlane watched an ant try to carry a grain of corn over a perpendicular wall. The kernel was larger than the ant itself. As the emperor counted, sixty-nine times the ant tried to carry it up the wall. Sixty-nine times he fell back. On the seventieth try he pushed the grain of corn over the top. Tamerlane leaped to his feet with a shout! He, too, would triumph in the end! He did, reorganizing his forces and putting the enemy to flight.

Winston Churchill said to our president on February 9, 1941, during a radio broadcast: “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” And I will never forget hearing the amazing speech he gave to a very fearful people in Britain when he addressed the House of Commons on December 30, 1941. It included these words: “When I warned (the French) that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, “In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.” Some chicken; some neck.

One stormy night a boat could make no headway, and while the captain was struggling to get into port, a nervous passenger said to him: "Do you think we shall get in all right?" He replied: "This is a leaky old boat, and we may go down; and the boilers are not in very good condition, so we may go up. But, whatever happens, we are going on."

________

Sunday School Times

Dan Quayle recalls the most trying time of his life:

When people have asked me whether I ever considered quitting the 1988 campaign, I've dodged the question. But the truth is I came close. If I were hurting George Bush, I told myself, then I had an obligation to get off. But polls showed that we were on the upswing. So the decision came down to whether I owed it to myself and my family to put an end to what had become a miserable ordeal.

One day, the press massed at the bottom of our driveway. They were conducting a kind of deathwatch, wondering if I would throw in the towel. Marilyn and I went up to our bedroom. She later told me she had never seen me as low as I was at that moment. Finally I asked her, “Should I quit?” Her response was immediate and definite. “Have you done anything wrong?” she asked. “Is one single allegation true?”

“No,” I answered.

“Well, if you get out now, everyone for the rest of your life will believe it is true. You have to stay,” she told me, “and you have to fight.”

I knew she was right. From that point on, all doubts were put aside, and I committed myself to winning the campaign.

The colorful, nineteenth-century showman and gifted violinist Niccolò Paganini was standing before a packed house, playing through a difficult piece of music. A full orchestra surrounded him with magnificent support. Suddenly one string on his violin snapped and hung gloriously down from his instrument. Beads of perspiration popped out on his forehead. He frowned but continued to play, imprivising beautifully.

To the conductor's surprise, a second string broke. And shortly thereafter, a third. Now there were three limp strings dangling from Paganini's violin as the master performer completed the difficult composition on the one remaining string. The audience jumped to its feet and in good Italian fashion filled the hall with shouts and screams, “Bravo! Bravo!” As the applause died down, the violinist asked the people to sit back down. Even though they knew there was no way they could expect an encore, they quietly sank back into their seats.

He held the violin high for everyone to see. He nodded at the conductor to begin the encore and then he turned back to the crowd. With a twinkle in his eye, he smiled and shouted, “Paganini ... and one string!” After that he placed the single-stringed Stradivarius beneath his chin and played the final piece on one string as the audience (and the conductor) shook their heads in silent amazement. “Paganini ... and one string!” And, I might add, an attitude of fortitude.

________

Charles R. Swindoll, {Man to Man }(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996) 62-63

Two frogs fell into a can of cream, Or so I've heard it told. The

sides of the can were shiny and steep, The cream was deep and cold.

"Oh, what's the use?" croaked number one. "Tis fate, no help's around.

Good-bye, my friend! Good-bye, sad world!" And weeping still, he

drowned.

But number two, of sterner stuff, Dog-paddled in surprise. The while

he wiped his creamy face, And dried his creamy eyes. "I'll swim awhile

at least," he said, Or so I've heard he said; "It really wouldn't help

the world, If one more frog were dead." An hour or two he kicked and

swam, Not once he stopped to mutter, But kicked and kicked and swam

and kicked, Then hopped out, via butter!

What does it take to be a winner? To receive the cheers and honors

accorded victory? Ask Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1995. When

she was only 18 months old, she lost all the hearing in one ear and

all but 5 percent in the other. Yet, through years of determination

and discipline, she overcame her disability, learning to communicate

on her own.

Heather learned to develop what residual hearing she had. "It took

me six years to say my last name correctly,"1 says Heather. She

concentrated on lip reading others and speaking clearly to them. As a

result of her hard work, she finished high school with a 3.6 grade

average without using a sign interpreter. Heather has learned what it

means to fight the good fight to be in the center of God's will.

1. David Van Biema, "Beyond the Sond Barrier," {Time, }October

3, 1994, p. 66.

Everyone knows about Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Are you aware that R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store caught on? Henry Ford went bankrupt twice. English novelist John Creasy got 753 rejection slips before publishing 564 books. Home run hero Babe Ruth, with 714 round trippers, also struck out 1,330 times. Don't worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you won't even try.

________

Tom Sirotnak and Ken Walker, {Warriors }(Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995) 162

As we watch the talented wizardry of basketball star Michael

Jordan, we may assume his success came easy. However, Bob Greene,

author of {Hang Time} reveals that at age 15 Jordan was cut

from his junior high basketball team; but he didn't let his early

failure keep him from working and developing his skills. 1

Churches and church leaders need to learn to endure. The race we

run is not a short sprint; it is a marathon. We need to keep on until

the battle is won.

__________________

1. Shared in an interview with Henry Smith on

{CBS This Morning}, August 13, 1993

- Steve McKown, "Sermon Illustrations," {Proclaim, }(Nashville:

Sunday School Board, Oct-Dec, 1996) 29

My Source: Bulletin of the Hickory Ridge, AR church of Christ

Author: Unknown

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NOT WASTED

A young woman, who was a great lover of flowers, had set out a rare vine at the base of a stone wall. It grew vigorously, but it did not bloom. Day after day she cultivated it, watered it, and tried in every way to coax it into bloom. One morning, as she stood disappointedly before it, her invalid neighbor, whose back lot adjoined her own, called over and said: "You can't imagine how much I have been enjoying the blooms of that vine you planted." The owner looked, and on the other side of the wall was a mass of blooms. The vine had crept through the crevices and flowered luxuriantly on the other side.

So often we think our efforts are thrown away because we do not see their fruits. We need to learn that in God's service our prayers, our toil, our crosses are never in vain. Somewhere they bear fruit and hearts will receive blessing and joy.

We have read of a college girl who, as she tacked the New Year calendar to the wall, said:

“It is going to be a beautiful year!”

“How do you know?” asked her roommate.

“Well,” she replied, “a day isn’t a long time, and I know it is going to be beautiful because I am going to take a day at a time and make it so. I will see that every one of those 365 days gets at least one beautiful thing into it through my efforts.”

Her New Year motto might be, in the words of David, “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalms 90:12).

—Selected

submitted on Proclaim by David Hagey

George Paton was a missionary to the cannibals in the New Herbides Islands. He began his ministry in 1858 and stayed for over thirty years. His wife died in childbirth a year after arriving on the field. Paton had many close encounters with death told in his autobiography, THIRTY YEARS WITH SOUTH SEA CANNIBALS.

One time, “Paton was weeding his garden when a cannibal aimed a musket on him. Paton knew that the cannibal had trained the weapon on him but kept going down the row weeding. The cannibal kept following him. For some reason, the cannibal chose not to fire. Later someone asked, ‘How could you do that?’

Paton replied, ‘You know, if my life is over, it's over. And if it's not, I better weed the garden.’ God would not allow that cannibal to shoot Paton unless it was His time, and if it wasn't God's time, Paton had things to do.”

__________

RECLAIMING SURRENDERED GROUND, by Jim Logan, p. 160

1. Oh for a faith that will not shrink,

Though pressed by ev'ry foe;

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe:

2. That will not murmur or complain,

Beneath the chast'ning rod;

But in the hour of grief or pain

Will lean upon its God:

3. A faith that shines more bright & clear

When tempests rage without;

That when in danger knows no fear,

In darkness feels no doubt—

4. A faith that keeps the narrow way

Till life's last spark is fled,

And with a pure and heavenly ray

Lights up the dying bed.

5. Lord, give us such a faith as this,

And then, whate'er may come,

We'll taste, e'en here, the hallowed bliss

Of our eternal home!

[Tune “Evan”]

*

I watched the new high school football coach at our local high school work an amazing transformation. Before he took over, playing our team meant an almost automatic win for the other team. After the new coach came and made his mark, our team almost always went to the state championship. Our sons can tell you one reason why, because they played for him on some of those teams. He used to run some very grueling practices - but he told them he was building a "fourth quarter team" - a team that had the endurance to finish strong when their opponents were fading. And you could count on our team dominating the final quarter of the game - they knew how decisive it would be, and they were prepared to give it all. In fact, at the end of the third quarter, the players would pump each other up with this familiar war cry - "Fourth quarter! It's ours!"

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fourth Quarter - It's Ours!"

Champions are strong fourth quarter players - in sports, and in life. We're talking about responsibilities and challenges that require a lot of perseverance ... where victory requires giving more when you feel like giving up. And maybe you're in one of those "fourth quarter" situations right now. And God is calling you to finish strong.

Like the Apostle Paul did, as recorded in 2 Timothy 4, beginning with verse 5 - it's our word for today from the Word of God. He's had every reason to quit - persecution, imprisonment, beatings, exhaustion, and abandonment. And now he is writing what will be his final words before his execution by Caesar. He's calling Timothy to a championship finish - like he's doing.

He says - to him and to us - "Be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." A statement like that makes us ask, "Am I a finisher - or am I just a starter? Have I left behind me in my life a lot of things I started but I didn't finish?"

Paul then looks ahead to what's at the finish line for all who complete the course that God has given them - he says, "In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord ... will award to me on that day." Sadly, those who quit before the game was over will never know the rewards that only the finishers can enjoy.

So now, maybe at a time when you have so many reasons to slack off, to quit ... when you've already played hard for a long time, listen to God saying, "Do not be weary in well doing, for in due time you will reap if you do not give up." (Galatians 6:9) Be a fourth quarter husband or wife ... a fourth quarter mom or dad ... a fourth quarter friend or worker or leader ... Be a follower of Jesus who refuses to slack off, to slow down, to head for the showers, to give up.

After how long the game has been, and how hard it's been, maybe your strength is giving out, but God's strength belongs to the weak and the weary - and His strength can carry you all the way to the finish line. So shout it with all of God's champions - "It's the fourth quarter! It's ours!"

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

PERSEVERANCE

Sometimes it is very hard to keep on when we do not seem to be getting anywhere. When Thomas Carlyle had finished the first volume of his book, The French Revolution, he gave the finished manuscript to his friend John Stuart Mill and asked him to read it. It took Mr. Mill several days to read it and as he read, he realized that it was truly a great literary achievement.

Late one night as he finished the last page he laid the manuscript aside by his chair in the den of his home. The next morning the maid came; seeing those papers on the floor, she thought they were simply discarded. She threw them into the fire, and they were burned.

On March 6, 1835--he never forgot the date--Mill called on Carlyle in deep agony and told him that his work has been destroyed. Carlyle replied, "It's all right. I'm sure I can start over in the morning and do it again."

Finally, after great apologies, John Mill left and started back home. Carlyle watched his friend walking away and said to his wife, "Poor Mill. I feel so sorry for him. I did not want him to see how crushed I really am."

Then heaving a sigh, he said, "Well, the manuscript is gone, so I had better start writing again."

It was a long, hard process especially because the inspiration was gone. It is always hard to recapture the verve and the vigor if a man has to do a thing like that twice. But he set out to do it again and finally completed the work.

Thomas Carlyle walked away from disappointment. He could do nothing about a manuscript that was burned up. So it is with us: There are times to get up and get going and let what happened happen.

The Tale Of The Tardy Oxcart

Charles R. Swindoll, Word, p. 441.

Over the years I've been teaching children about a simple but powerful concept - the ant philosophy. I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That's a good philosophy. If they're headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they'll look for another way. They'll climb over, they'll climb under, they'll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you're supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That's an important perspective. You can't be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering in their winter food in the middle of summer.

An ancient story says, "Don't build your house on the sand in the summer." Why do we need that advice? Because it is important to be realistic. In the summer, you've got to think storm. You've got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun. Think ahead.

The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, "This won't last long; we'll soon be out of here." And the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they'll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can't wait to get out.

And here's the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All that he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the "all-that-you-possibly-can" philosophy.

Wow, what a great seminar to attend - the ant seminar. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.