The Great ANT March
Anxious Negative Thoughts don't get squashed. They get marched out.
A five-step method a nine-year-old can run in ninety seconds — built on Scripture, grounded in the work of Dr. Daniel Amen and the late Dr. Frank Minirth, and written for the parents, teachers and ministry leaders who are in the room when the thought shows up.
Get the free cardThe meltdown is never the beginning.
Before the slammed door, before the stomachache that isn't really a stomachache, before the child who suddenly hates a subject he loved in September — there is a thought. Usually a lie. And almost no one ever teaches a child to notice it.
Dr. Daniel Amen calls them ANTs: Automatic Negative Thoughts. I call them Anxious Negative Thoughts, because that is what they feel like from the inside.
Scripture got there first: "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Take captive. Not squash. Not ignore. Not pretend it isn't there. Capture the thought — and then march it out.
M-A-R-C-H
Five steps. About ninety seconds. Tap any step to open it.
M — Mark it.
A — Ask: is it true?
R — Recall God's truth.
C — Capture the thought.
H — Head it out!
Mark it, ask it, recall what's true —
Capture the thought, and head it on through!
MARCH is a tool, not a treatment. If a child's anxiety is stealing sleep, school, or appetite for weeks at a time, that is a call to a doctor or a counselor, not a card on the refrigerator. Dr. Frank Minirth taught me that, and I have never forgotten it.
The Ninety-Second MARCH Card
One page. Five steps. Room to write. Print it, put it on the refrigerator or hand it out to your class, and a child can run it at a kitchen table with a pencil.
It's free, and there is nothing to buy on the other side of it.
Send me the card
Your card opens straight away. One email follows with the link so you always have it.
The Books
One story, three readers — the child, the working adult, and the small group.
Jesus and the Great ANT March
Ages 9–12
Sam is nine and can't turn his brain off at night. His Aunt Grace teaches him the five MARCH steps. Eight chapters, each followed by an application page: a MARCH worksheet, reflection questions, a discussion prompt for the grown-up reading along, and a Scripture memory card. A certificate of completion at the end.
The ANT March at Work
Adults — workplace edition
The thoughts don't retire at eighteen. They just get better vocabulary. A short parable you can finish in an evening and use the next morning: a retired plant manager named Grace, a plastic ant on a desk, and the same blue card. All fourteen ANTs recast for adult working life.
The ANT March — Church Edition
Adults — small groups
The same parable with the Scripture kept where it belongs, plus a complete six-session small-group leader guide: discussion questions, the pocket card, and everything a volunteer needs to lead it without prep.
Bring it to your school, church or group
All of this was built to be used by a group, not just read by one person.
Classroom or children's ministry: the children's book runs as an eight-week class — one chapter, one worksheet, one memory verse a week.
Small group: the church edition ships with a complete six-session leader guide.
Everyone: the card and the worksheets are yours to copy for your group. That's what they're for.
I spent my career in schools, most of them small and remote, and I know what a Sunday school teacher or a fourth-grade teacher actually has time for on a Tuesday night. Tell me what you lead and I'll tell you honestly whether this fits.
Teaching in a public school? There is a version of this method without the Scripture, built for classrooms that can't use faith-based materials — same five steps, same one-page tool. See the classroom version.
Tell me what you lead
I read these myself and answer personally.
Who wrote this
I'm Dr. Beau Abernathy. I've spent decades in schools — teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent in Texas and Alaska, most recently in a village reachable only by plane or ferry. I've sat with a lot of anxious children and a lot of exhausted adults.
Two men taught me most of what I know about anxious thoughts. Dr. Daniel Amen showed me the science — that the thoughts run in patterns, and a learned pattern can be interrupted. Dr. Frank Minirth, my friend and co-author until his death, showed me the rest: that a person is not a brain scan, and the gospel is not a coping strategy bolted onto psychology. He held both without flinching and never made anyone choose.
This is my attempt to hold both the way Frank did.
Start with the card.
It costs nothing, it takes ninety seconds, and it works tonight.
Send me the free card