If
you’re the kind of person who likes agendas and schedules, don’t take up agriculture.
Oh, it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, but on any given day, what you get done is
what you get done.
Weather
is sometimes predictable but never controllable. Plant thriftiness can be
managed to some extent but with widely varying rates of success. Desired animal
behaviors and health can be encouraged but not depended upon. Buildings,
infrastructure, vehicles, and machinery can be maintained but deteriorate or
suddenly fail. Economic factors and markets vacillate. Human ideas are fallible,
emotions are fickle, and strength is variable.
On
top of that, unforeseen stuff happens…neighbors need help; hay buyers stop by;
heifers need rebred; the power goes out so the automatic waterer no longer works,
so the horses have to be moved; and prairie fires roar over the hills, headed
straight for the ranch, calling for heroic efforts to save cattle, hay, and
house (happened to friends and family just a few weeks ago)!
The
nature of agriculture calls for
farmers and ranchers to be diligent and hard-working but also easy-going and patient. This makes for quite an
interesting combination of personality traits, which are not always easily
balanced!
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but [He
has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind
and discipline and self-control.” –2 TIMOTHY 1:7
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