Group 3 — Amazing Story of His Faith: George Washington Carver

A reproducible PDF file of this material is available here.

Watch the video. Use the following quotations from George Washington Carver and the discussion starters to guide you and your group as you seek to gain insights from Carver’s life about what it means to be made in God’s image. Some items are in bold type to make it easy to hone in on certain specific discussion items, but every item is “fair game.”

- Carver affirmed, “My prayers seem to be more of an attitude than anything else. I indulge in very little lip service, but ask the Great Creator silently, daily, and often many times a day, to permit me to speak to Him through the three great Kingdoms of the world which He has created — the animal, mineral, and vegetable Kingdoms – to understand their relations to each other, and our relations to them and to the Great God who made all of us. I ask Him daily and often momently to give me wisdom, understanding, and bodily strength to do His will; hence I am asking and receiving all the time.”
- Carver declared, “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
- Carver stated, “The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible.”
- Carver once said, “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me.”

How do you think God communicated these special messages to Carver?

Since God created every human being in His image, everyone reflects His image, though often in ways different from others. As we have seen, George Washington Carver had a deep and lasting faith in the God of the Bible. He asked God to speak to Him and testified that God indeed communicated with him. While God isn’t surprised that those He made in His image reflect His image, how do you think He responds (and by that I mean both how does He feel and what kinds of things might He do) when a man, woman, boy, or girl asks Him to use him or her to glorify Him? How did he use Mr. Carver? How might He use you, if you make yourself explicitly available?

As Christians, we are grateful to God for His role in our lives as redeemer — and certainly we should be. But what special adventures may await us if we also would practice, as Carver did, a willingness to cooperate with God in His role and position of Creator? How might we cultivate, as Mr. Carver did, a lifestyle of cooperating with the Creator? For one thing, we might consider availing ourselves to Him in prayer regularly, looking for ways to appreciate and use the elements God has made available to us to benefit others. How does this align with God’s command in Genesis 1:28?

- George Washington Carver understood that learning was, not just important, but also an adventure. He advised, “Young people, I want to beg of you always keep your eyes open to what Mother Nature has to teach you. By so doing you will learn many valuable things every day of your life. And he said, “I know of nothing more inspiring than that of making discoveries for ones self.”

How can we listen to God in and through nature, and appreciate nature, without falling into the trap of thinking of nature as God? How do you think Carver avoided this pitfall? One of his safeguards was that he formed his view of God according to the Bible, not just what he might have imagined God to be like from observations of nature alone. Remember, as we already have noted, Carver declared, “The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible.”

Read Psalm 19:1-3 and Romans 1:18-23. Discuss the reality that human beings have the ability to understand that the creation that surrounds us had to have a Creator — and He is God. Having been made in His image, we not only have the ability to understand this, but also the capacity to know Him. Are we willing to approach Him on His conditions? Are you? A first step is to acknowledge that He exists and that you are accountable to Him.

- Carver understood the creative power of the individual person. He said, “Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible.”

What are some ways we can, as Carver suggests, “stimulate and encourage” minds to be creative?

This page is part of a Bible study at Discover Bedrock Truth.

top image credit: In 1948 the U.S. Government released a commemorative stamp issued on Carver’s birthday, five years after his death. Wikimedia Commons. Visit https://t.ly/40DXa.