I am sure some of you have seen or heard this before but I wanted to share it. Shellie
So God Made a Farmer
And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the township board." So God made a farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle a calf and yet gentle enough to cradle his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait for lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure to come back real soon and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say,'Maybe next year,' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from an ash tree, shoe a horse, who can fix a harness with hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. Who, during planting time and harvest season will finish his 40-hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, up in another 72 hours." So God made the farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to help a newborn calf begin to suckle and tend the pink-comb pullets, who will stop his mower in an instant to avoid the nest of meadowlarks."

It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, brake, disk, plow, plant, strain the milk, replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with an eight mile drive to church. Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when his family says that they are proud of what Dad does. "So God made a farmer."

Words of Wisdom for the day. Have a wonderful one!






A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a
reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in
their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went
into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an
assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some
expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot
chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said,
"Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind
the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best
for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that
you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In
most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we
drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you
consciously went for the best cups...and then you began eyeing each other's
cups."

"Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position
in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The
cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot
chocolate. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just
make the best of everything that they have."

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.

And enjoy your hot chocolate!