Weary, forgetting, feeding time

I am looking forward to the weekend. This has been a long and tiring week. There have not been any overly taxing issues to deal with but there have been a lot of little problems that added to the drama that has driven me through the week. Not the least of which is what is happening between my daughter Rebekah and her husband Charles. It is all as unpleasant as it is unnecessary but they are in a situation that they have both steered themselves into. There will be no easy, quick or painless way out.


Without going into details I will say that they are separated at this time. A series of very bad decisions has given Rebekah the “justification” to leave her husband and continue down the wicked path they set themselves on. I have explained to Charles and I will say the same to Rebekah should she care to hear it, that although our salvation in Christ Jesus saves us from the ultimate penalty of sin – eternal separation from the presence of God with all the torment and anguish that accompanies that final destination – but it does not always deliver us from the consequences of our sins.

When you sow the seeds of sin, you will reap the harvest it brings. As the Law of Sowing and Reaping works for good – you reap what you sow, you reap more than you sow (some thirty, some sixty and some one hundred fold), you will reap after you sow – it also works in the bad seed sown. And because of that, it is difficult to know how this will all turn out. Although I cannot speak to Charles’s upbringing, Rebekah does know better. Please pray for them.

Last night I was supposed to stop and get some chicks to add to the batch Mama bought in Bowie but when I got to the farm store I could not remember what kind I was supposed to buy. Mama has been reading a book given to her and some of the information has to do with chickens. It outlines which lay the best, which grow the biggest, which are more docile, etc. In getting all that information in conversation every evening I drew a complete blank on the breed she was looking for. I called but got no answer and with money being a little tight right now, I left the store empty handed.

As soon as she did call me back, I remembered. Those of you who know me know how that works. But by that time I was half way home. In her gracious nature, Mama called the store and asked them to hold six of the New Hampshire Reds chicks for me to pick up today. As long as they have the order written down I will not even try to remember. Hopefully, they wrote it down.

Mama was so frustrated with the calves last night it was pretty funny. When she and I went out with the bottles for the evening feeding only one of the four came to our calling. The other three sat contentedly on the far side of the calf lot oblivious to the offering. So we fed the one and began to take care of the sheep and chickens as part of our normal evening routine. We had to walk up to the calves, wake them up (figuratively speaking) and get them in motion before they remembered what time it was.

As soon as the idea dawned on them they were suddenly extremely hungry. Then we had to fight them off all the way to the stall area and get them into the right stalls as they butted each of us in turn looking for the bottle. If you have never had a hungry three month old calf try to stick his head up your backside as you walked, you have missed a very interesting experience. It gives a certain sense of appreciation to just how durable a mama cow’s utter must be.

Two went straight to their respective stalls. The third took a very long and cumbersome route and finally got stuck behind the tractor. I had to climb into the enclosure and run him out so Mama could put him in his stall. He got renamed several times in the process; nothing vulgar. I am not sure what Mama is calling him this morning, but I never take time to learn names. It does not seem practical to me to do so.

I am anxious to hear how the chicks fared through the night.