It has been a while since I’ve posted but life has gotten in
the way. This week, one of life’s bumps
in the road has afforded me some time to rest and think. To make a long story short, I fell ill
earlier in the week with symptoms of an upper respiratory infection that was
diagnosed yesterday by my family physician as Influenza Type 2 (bird flu).
So, under the influence of a steroid injection and unable to
sleep last night, my thoughts drifted back to my childhood and what takeaways
influenced me as an adult. Before I jump
into the list, let me first paint the picture of the place I grew up.
I grew up on a small family farm located about 5 miles from
Rentz, Georgia. The farm was about 100
acres in size with approximately 70 acres in cultivation and 30 acres in
timber. There are 5 children in my
family and I was on the next to last stair step in age (oldest to youngest). The age span from oldest to youngest is 18 years. This means when I’m 6 years old,
my oldest sibling is a senior in high school, the next oldest is in junior high school,
the middle sibling is in upper elementary school, I’ll be starting first grade
next year, and the youngest sibling was just born.
Looking back it’s clear to me now, my childhood was not
going to be quite as typical as most. By
the time I reach 8 years old, the oldest and only male sibling in the family
has graduated from high school and is heading off to college. My two older
sisters are now in high school and junior high and my baby sister is in her
terrible two’s.
At this point, my father looked to me to become his #1 farm
hand and this is where today's blog begins.
What were the takeaways from growing up a farm hand that shaped the personality
I have today?
How
things work. On the farm, we were farmers, mechanics, electricians,
scientist, inventors, problem solvers, and engineers, depending on what the situation we faced demanded. Much of the knowledge shared from elders to youth was learned
by trial and error or passed down by their elders but there was always great encouragement and celebration
when a younger farm hand would come up with a better way to address an old
problem. So I was always looking for new and better ways to do our daily farm tasks. Most were rejected but that occasional "home run" was thrilling!
Patience. This is one I cannot stress enough. In an age of instant gratification we lose sight of the importance of patience. As a young man I can remember the overwhelming feeling of despair as I looked at a 50 acre field that was going to have to be plowed knowing it would take days with the small tractor we had in those days to complete the task. I would spend hour after hour in the cold or heat riding the tractor slowly but surely completing the task, one pass at a time. At the end, there was great satisfaction looking back over the freshly plowed field and knowing that I had set a goal and seen it to completion.
Patience. This is one I cannot stress enough. In an age of instant gratification we lose sight of the importance of patience. As a young man I can remember the overwhelming feeling of despair as I looked at a 50 acre field that was going to have to be plowed knowing it would take days with the small tractor we had in those days to complete the task. I would spend hour after hour in the cold or heat riding the tractor slowly but surely completing the task, one pass at a time. At the end, there was great satisfaction looking back over the freshly plowed field and knowing that I had set a goal and seen it to completion.
Faith. It became clear to me at an early age that farming is a gamble. You do all the right things; prepare the fields at the right time, plant the good seeds, fertilize them, cultivate and nurturing the crops, but in the end, there are no guarantees. Insects, diseases, too much rain, not enough rain, storms, too hot, too cold, etc., can destroy or partially destroy your crop. So one farms on faith. Looking to the Lord to for strength and guidance when we plant our crops and we always gave thanks for the little or plentiful harvest received in the fall.
Love. If you were raised in a close knit farming community, over time you see the love of the people in the community. I cannot list here all the acts of kindness I’ve seen during my youth but the ones that stand out include, my father making trips to an elderly neighbor’s house on summer nights to sit on his porch and share fellowship and bible study with him. The multitude of meals my mom prepared for the sick and shut ins in our community. And the neighbors and family that came to my own family’s assistant when my father broke his leg building our last home in the 1960’s. They dried in the house while he was in recovery.
Peace. I will always cherish my memories of laying in a trailer full of fresh picked cotton on a warm summer day and staring at the blue sky with clouds like massive cotton balls and wondering if this is what it’s like to be in heaven. Moments of peace were easily found in many places on the farm.
So these were my takeaways to this day. How things work, I’ve used it for years, I
able to look at complicated situations and quickly break them down to logical
steps so the operations can be better understood, fixed or improved.
Patience, a lost skill these days but still very necessary. Otherwise no complicated project would ever
get finished on time or in budget. I
guess with patience also comes focus, young grasshopper.
Faith, spiritual faith comes from within. You have to open this door yourself.
Love and Peace, these comes with faith. Once you’ve been touched by the Holy Spirit
and accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, these two come easy.
Thanks Be To God.
