2020 Vision

Happy New Year, Everyone!

How could I be that close and yet so far off the track

Well, I've got 20-20 vision but only looking back - Ronnie Milsap

That's some of the lyrics from a good old, classic country song by Ronnie Milsap.  Sometimes I feel just like that.  As I look back on 2019, I can see clearly things I couldn't see while living the moment.  Last year I set three goals.  Let's see how I did:

Goal #1  Read 3 chapters a day in the Bible.  Doing so will get you through the Bible in one year.  I failed in this goal. 

Goal #2  Do at least 25 push ups and 25 sit ups every day.  Doing so will keep me in shape.  I failed in this goal.

Goal #3  Read at least 1 book per month.  I far exceeded this goal.

1 out of 3.  Not good.  Why did I not achieve my goals?  I believe it was because I got distracted.  Work is stressful and involves long hours.  When I'm off, I just like to unwind.  I like to check items off my to do list.  Tricia and me and the boys were talking about goals yesterday and today.  We find that we are pretty, doggone good at setting short term goals and achieving them.  Items on our list that include routine maintenance or chores generally get completed and scratched off the list.

It's the long term goals we I struggle with.  Routine Bible reading builds faith and positions you to learn about and walk more closely with God.  While I truly do love reading the Bible, I admit I find it hard to discipline myself to sit still and read.  I get easily distracted.  I have put this back as the #1 goal this year.

As I get one year older, my metabolism slows and gravity and time takes its toll.  Work is demanding and by the time I get home, I'm tired mentally and physically.  I simply must be more disciplined to keep in shape.  I put this back as my #2 goal this year.

As another year passes by, I realize that I need to do a better job at getting my financial house in order.  We have done a good job with managing debt and sacrificing so that we have been able to save for retirement.  We have not done such a great job in managing our investments.  They aren't diversified, balanced, or allocated properly.  I have added this to my goal list this year.

What we discussed as a family is that it has been proven that if you write your goals down, you are more likely to achieve them.  If you don't write goals down or even if you have long-range goals, but don't list steps to get you toward those long range goals, you experience "drift."  Life just happens and things get away from you - a year later, you find yourself wondering what in the world happened?  I want to live life in a purposeful manner, intentional, and with the end-goal in sight - spiritually, physically, and financially.

Happy 2020 Everyone!

Happy New Year To You From Our Maker's Acres Family Farm

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Well, 2018 is in the books, wrapped up with a bow and all done.  In the upcoming days, we'll look back at some of the numbers like we always do - looking at rainfall, egg production, milk production, animal production, etc.

For now we'll look ahead to 2019 with a few resolutions and/or goals.  I've come to dislike resolutions simply because they are so doggone hard to keep.  I always start with such good intentions, only to fall short of following through.  And the salt in the wound is that it doesn't take me very long to get off-track on my lofty goals.

This year, I'm going to try to keep things simple, and I've asked my family to hold me accountable.  Here goes:  I like to make goals in three areas: Spiritual, Physical, and Mental.

Spiritual Goal for 2019: Read 3 Chapters a day in the Bible.  Doing this will enable me to read through the Bible in a year.  I like to read beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation.  I know many people will read a couple chapters in the Old Testament and 1 chapter in the New Testament each day.  I like to read the Bible through, though.  It is just more orderly and I can follow the timeline of what is going on from a historical perspective that way.

Physical Goal for 2019:  Do at least 50 push ups and 50 sit ups each day.  I am not real big on working out.  I would much rather work hard in meaningful work that accomplishes an outcome, but especially during the short days of winter, there's not a lot to do outside.  I'm 52 now and as the metabolism slows, but my appetite for good food grows, there's a weighty problem ahead (no pun intended) if I don't burn some calories.

Mental Goal for 2019:  Read a book a month. 

I have a few homestead to do's, but these are more to do list items than resolutions.  I'll list them here and will check them in a year to see how much we got done:

1. Put in sidewalks to help with trudging through the mud,
2. Add lighting to the barn.  Adding the lean-to's on either side of the barn made it darker in the barn,
3. Add lights to the cattle trailer.  Maybe we can be legal for Benjamin's last year of showing:),
4. Build a roof that spans between the barn and goat barn,
5. Bring in more fill dirt to fill in low areas around the barn,
6. Improve drainage around the barn,
7. Make homemade soap

So there we have it.  We have been blessed in 2018 despite some difficult bumps in the road.  May God bless you and your family in 2019!

Looking Forward to 2014... And looking Back

Laura Lee and Russ are home for the holidays and out of college until the middle of January.  It has been nice having them home.  Since today is Russ' 19th birthday, last night we started a big fire in the fireplace and spent some family time together.  Tricia had the fantastic idea of getting out the video tape of the day that Russ was born and watching it.  I don't think we had ever watched it.  Tomorrow is New Year's Day and I'll get around to addressing that in the end.  But first, a brief trip down memory lane..

I remember growing up in the late 60's and early 70's and we had a Super 8mm projector like the one shown below.  We would sit down in the living room, prop the front of the projector up on some National Geographic magazines and point it at a white wall and watch footage from our family vacations in our Oldsmobile station wagon with simulated wood-grain siding.  Me and my brother and sister were making goofy faces at each other and clowning around in all of the movies.  At the very end of every movie, for some reason, the bulb would melt a big spot in the film. In my mind's eye, I can still see the melting blob of film and hear the click, click, click of the movie signifying the end before we could get to the projector and stop the melting film.  I can still smell the smell of melting film.  Weird how you remember the oddest things!

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Anyway, when our kids were born, we had a "compact" VHS movie camera, which is ridiculously huge by today's standards.  As we began to watch the video of old Russ' first day on the Planet, it turned into a very emotional time for me for several reasons.

First, we were SO YOUNG! We didn't have the scars (physical and emotional) that we have now that 20 years will put on you.  We were oblivious to the hardships that the next few months/years would hit us with (Russ was a very sick little boy for the first year or two of his life.  We almost lost him).

Second, seeing old pictures really puts it in perspective how time flies.  You only have your kids for a brief period before they are off on their own.  Scary really, when you think about what a short time you have to be a parent.

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Finally, the video had both of my grandmothers in it and hearing them talk was really something.  Everything seemed so normal.  And then just a few short years later, they were both gone.  Everything changes... so very quickly.  It was sobering in that it was a reminder that, in this New Year, we'd better enjoy every minute we have.  It reminds me of the following verse from the Bible:

James 4:14

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

So what can I do to make the most of 2014?  I usually try NOT to make New Year's resolutions because many times I don't stick with them.  I read a study from the University of Scranton that said that 81% of people who make New Year's resolutions fail to reach them.  I don't want to be in that statistic.  I also read that people who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them, so I hope this counts as writing them down.  With that being said, here goes:

I like to make 3 goals for the year - one spiritual, one physical, and one mental.

Spiritual Goal: This year I will be more intentional in sharing my faith and putting feet to my faith by being purposeful in living out the words of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  In order to deepen my relationship with God, I'll read my Bible and pray daily.

Physical Goal:  This year I will be deliberate in engaging in physical activity each and every day - simple stuff like push-ups and sit-ups, but when the days get longer, gardening and physical labor outside each day will do it for me.

Mental Goal:  This year I will read at least one book each month.

So while the New Year is full of promise and questions and potential, this year is in God's hands.  If the Good Lord's willing, we'll do lots of things.  We also have responsibility in this, though.  Just this morning I was on my way to work.  It is a 50 minute commute that I do every weekday since August 2006.  I listen to Christian radio and political talk radio on my drive.  I was about 15 minutes into my commute and realized that I was on auto-pilot!  I didn't even remember getting on the Interstate.  But I had done it so many times that I wasn't thinking.  I was just going through the motions.  I began to think that that is exactly what will happen in the New Year if I'm not intentional about things.  I'll wake up from a daze on December 31, 2014 and wonder where the year went AND wonder why I'm in the same place spiritually, mentally, and physically.  This is unacceptable to me and I won't let it happen.

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From Our Maker's Acres Family Farm to you, we wish you a very Happy and Prosperous 2014!  Thanks for sharing 2013 with us.

Hand to the Plow

The photo in my post the other day that showed the farmer with his team pulling the plow got me thinking - thinking about work.  Actually, thinking about work ethic and some good rules to live by.  Rules, if implemented, that will not necessarily guarantee success, but will definitely get you going in the right direction. Now I am a Christian and I firmly believe that the Bible is God's Holy Word, written by mere men, but who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. That is where I go first in order to get the rules that I try to live by.

Hard work

But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." - Luke 9:62

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Commitment

In our spiritual lives as well as our everyday life dealing with work issues, financial issues, parenting issues, etc., we must be committed.  We must stay focused on the true task at hand and not be distracted by 'shiny objects' that compete for our attention.  In looking at the photo above, determination and sticking with something to the end was key in getting the field plowed.  If you didn't finish, the crop didn't get planted and you didn't eat!

Likewise, if we start off in our Christian walk (notice the person originally put his hand to the plow) and then look back, we aren't really devoted or committed to Him in the first place and Jesus says we're not fit for His Kingdom.  Before we do anything else, we must examine ourselves to determine if we are truly of the Faith.  

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-- unless indeed you fail the test? - 2 Corinthians 13:5

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Once we've gotten our spiritual house in order we can look to other areas.  I heard Dr. Walter E. Williams give a 5 Step Plan on "How not to be Poor" and it has stuck with me for years:

1) Graduate from high school

2) Get married before you have children
3) Stay married
4) Work at any kind of job
5) Avoid engaging in criminal behavior

We try to make it so difficult, but if you distill it down to those 5 things, you've definitely got some good momentum going for you.  The thing, however, that can throw a monkey wrench in all that is debt.  

Abraham Lincoln, back on January 1, 1863, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, an Executive Order that freed the slaves.  That was a bright spot in our Country's history and righted the evil of owning another human being, but you know what?  Many people willingly submit themselves to slavery each and every day. Hard to believe, I know.

The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender's slave.  - Proverbs 22:7

When we purchase goods and services with money that we do not have, we become a slave to the person or institution that loaned us that money.  We should aim to budget and never let our expenditures exceed our receipts.  Yes, this involves sacrifice and the foregoing of things that you want until you have funds for it, but this will ensure your FREEDOM, your emancipation from financial servitude to JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, etc. etc.  I am debt averse.  

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another... Romans 13:8

We try very, very hard to avoid debt.  If you have debt, your security is in question.  You worry about losing everything if you lose your job and you wonder how you are going to pay the bills if someone gets sick. Being debt-free means that you may not drive the newest car, have the latest phone, or wear the trendiest fashions, but with a lack of debt, you've purchased peace of mind and freedom.  We have ratified a Balanced Budget Amendment at our house.  Is it asking too much that our politicians grasp this concept too?

Another good practice is to set goals and write them down.  According to Dave Kohl, a professor at Virginia Tech, "People who write down their goals earn nine times as much over their lifetimes than those who don't."  Further, a study by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University, "People who wrote down their goals, shared this information with a friend, and sent weekly updates to that friend were on average 33% more successful in accomplishing their stated goals than those who merely formulated goals."

Finally, we're not afraid of a little hard work.  We try to be self-sufficient and try to view life as a classroom and are always curious about learning new things, particularly things that enable us to be less dependent upon the worldly system.  

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We certainly haven't figured it all out and there are chapters left to be written, but we aim to keep our 'Hand to the Plow' and will not look back.