Out of our Control-

We have a favorite verse that we print on our farm shirts, presentations, stationary, etc.  It is Deut. 11:15 and it says “He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.”  Sometimes the wording is “I will provide grass in your fields and you will eat and be satisfied.”  We love this because it says that God will provide. God provides the simplest of systems that work the way that they should.  Grass grows. Cows eat grass. Owners sell milk. Owners get to eat.  It’s really that simple.

We have spoken at conferences throughout the years. One time at a conference during a break, an older gentleman came over to us.  He chuckled, thinking how he was going to catch us off guard and asked if we knew what the Bible said immediately before that.   For some reason, I had just read it, so I was quick to reply “Sure we do. It says “if you obey….” and then continued to say that whenever we had a drought or a flood I always wondered who of our farmer friends weren’t obeying.  We had a good laugh at that.

So many things with farming are out of our control. The weather, for instance.  We can have all the hay equipment lined up and ready to go, and then it will rain for a month.  It did this in 2009.  The market, for another.  You can increase your herd and get more milk out of them than you ever have, and the price will fall through the floor.  This is where we just trust God to direct in our next steps, to put the right person in our path, to provide.  We do the best we can with the things that we can control and we let Him to the rest.  Sometimes it takes us awhile to remember to not worry and let Him do that, but that is the goal.

Consider how much easier your life would be if you let someone else (God) do the worrying about the things that are out of your control.  Just do the best you can with what you can control.