On the Farm

 

I learned many lessons on my grandparents' dairy farm in Burley, Idaho.  My kids only had the privilege of visiting there a handful of times in their lives, but I believe I continue to pass on many of those lessons to them anyway.

Lessons like the fact that virtually all problems in life can be soothed if not fixed with Schwann's ice cream.  

That hard work is part of life and everyone pitches in.  

That no work is beneath us.  

That we earn our own way. Because it's God's way. 

Colton also learned and shared his knowledge of farm animal anatomy with everyone he met for months and months after we visited when he was a toddler.  As for the outfit....I can only say it was 1999 and he loved Winnie the Pooh.  And those shoes were a short lived fad that followed up light-up shoes.  They had trains on them and when he jumped made a loud obnoxious train whistle sound. So yes he would jump incessantly and then once the train whistle got your attention tell you about the biggest bull he ever saw and how he knew it was a bull. 

Some farm lessons were better than others. 

Elder Stanley G Ellis also shared the lessons he learned on a farm in Burley, Idaho.  

"To work—if you don’t plant, you don’t harvest.

To work smart—if you irrigate and fertilize, you harvest more.

The importance of timing—if you don’t plant at the right time, an early frost can destroy the harvest.

To do what is needed or ought to be done regardless of what is enjoyable, preferable, or convenient—you milk the cow when she needs to be milked, not when you want to.

To be direct—with livestock and machinery involved, you don’t have time to “beat around the bush” or to worry about being politically correct. (In this respect, as I have served throughout the Church, I have often asked, “Do you want me to speak directly or with sugar?” As a rule the Saints have chosen “direct!” I will be direct today.)

Finally, as an Idaho farm boy, I learned to stick to the basics."

How wonderful it is that so many of the very circumstances we live in, are also the means for our greatest lessons.  It's almost like those who created us and our world had a plan......