Large, reddish black ants in bathroom again. Lights on- they’d scurry to hide; lights off- they’d come right back in.

Using my Nancy Drew skills, I followed one that seemed to be on the way out. He wandered off his path a bit, and eventually came to a back corner of the window sill.

There was a hole about an eight of an inch in diameter, plenty big enough for several to come and go at the same time. From somewhere outside, they had been able to chew or bore that hole, which hadn’t even been there two weeks before.

Amazing the persistence, and team work, of ants. I have seen tiny ants gather around a crumb, or a dead bug, and drag or lift (!) it to move it. It seems when they have a goal, nothing deters them. They might have an interruption (like the lights coming on), they may get sidetracked or even off-track, but they get right back to it. They keep the focus on the goal, determined. Like our marathon bike touring friends, who were riding in the downpours. They had a goal to meet and raise funds for a worthy cause.

This was a good reminder, and example to me, of a verse that was written in the front of a Bible, given to me many years ago at confirmation. The pastor wrote, next to my name, Phil. 3:14. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The redeeming part of this ant story is that it reminds me to stay focused, to keep first things first, and to persevere, to keep on keepin’ on. Good news is that I (and we) don’t have to do it alone. Thank you, Lord.

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Galatians 6:9

He was just a little boy, on a week’s first day. He was wandering home from Sunday School, and dawdling on the way. He scuffed his shoes into the grass; he found a caterpillar. He found a fluffy milkweed pod, and blew out all the “filler.”

A bird’s nest in a tree overhead, so wisely placed on high, Was just another wonder that caught his eager eye. A neighbor watched his zig zag course, and hailed him from the lawn, Asked him where he’d been that day and what was going on.

“I’ve been to Bible School,” he said and turned a piece of sod. He picked up a wiggly worm replying, “I’ve learned a lot of God.”

“M’m very fine way,” the neighbor said, “for a boy to spend his time. If you’ll tell me where God is, I’ll give you a brand new dime.”

Quick as a flash the answer came! Nor were his accents faint. ”I’ll give you a dollar, Mister, if you can tell me where God ain’t.”

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman watched her neighbor hanging wash outside.

“That laundry is not very clean,” she said. ”She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.”

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband,

“Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.I wonder who taught her this.”

The husband said, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”

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And so it is with life. What we see when watching others may depend on the purity of the window through which we look.