Saturday, February 18, 2017

I Didn't Rejoice


So yesterday morning, Myguy went out to feed calves before 
leaving for work.  He's always loved cows and he spends more time with them
than I do.  I love them too but because I know tending to them is his "down time".. his happyplace,
I leave those chores for him to do.  It's his breathing time.  
Well; he put on his muck boots and headed to the barn and never came back in the house
to change boots and head to work?  That's when I text him to see where he'd went and found out:
Calves were gone!  Myguy had already  jumped in a truck and was out looking for them. Before 
I could get out the door I had a text from my neighbor who said "Your cows are out!" I wrote back
and asked if she found them but she hadn't.  Myguy had already stopped by their place to put word out.  He followed manure down our long driveway and up on the road towards their place.  Then it looked like they went in the woods across the road.  By the time I got in my truck and to the neighbors; Myguy had headed into 80 acres of woods on foot with a neighbors husband.  We all looked and looked.  There were tracks and signs here and there but poof they disappeared into deep woods.  Myguy and I went to an elderly lady's house  further up the road and asked her if she cared if we walked out behind her place because it looked like they may have went that way.  She was so sweet and gave us permission.  The trail had disappeared though.  
One 80 acres joined another neighbors who owns around 300 acres so Myguy text him and although 
he was tied up all day he gave Myguy the combination to the lock on his gate so we could search.  
Do we have great neighbors or what?  We drove a long ways out there but parked and  started walking.  It was too much ground to cover and  would have taken forever.  We've had rain and didn't want to get stuck driving so went back home and got a fourwheeler then headed back.  We rode and rode and rode.  The cows  were just ...gone.  
Every so often we'd turn off the fourwheeler and Myguy would call.  They know their shepherds voice.  But not a moo back.  We finally had to head home.  Throughout the rest of the day we kept looking and neighbors text and called and no one had seen anything.  We were just sick!!  

The photo above is of my antique gate made from an iron bed frame.  I had one of our sons hang it there for me and it worked so good and I loved it.  However ... we didn't have cows in there at that time.  It looks to us like one got her head through and then must have panicked and went to yankin and tore the whole thing down.  Everytime I walked by that gate throughout the day I felt my guts wrench.  

Just as evening approached my phone rang.  It was our neighbor and she said, "Your cows are up by that gate in those woods!!!!!"  I quick called Mike who was then with our youngest son driving towards a nearby town.  They made a U turn and I ran to fetch a cattle panel to tie up over the broken down gate and then ran to the barn for a couple buckets of grain to take up the road.  When I got there Myguy and Tony were already there.  I don't even want to think about how they got there so fast.  Our neighbor walked with Mike and unlocked the gate across the road.  The rest of us stood back to stay out of the way.  Mike walked up that driveway into the woods and said the calves were very skittish but did come to him and followed him.  Wasn't long and we watched them come through the gate to the road.  Our neighbor who lives right there opened "his" gate into a catch pen and thankfully the calves followed Mike into that pen .. all but ONE.  There is always one that doesn't want to go!  So we  walked behind some vehicles and hid and waited praying.  Thankfully the little rascal followed through the gate and our neighbor ran up and locked it behind them.  We were hugging and smiles could not have been bigger. Thank you LORD!!!!  I will never forget the look of sweet relief on  Myguy's face.  Then we got a stock trailer in there and loaded them all up and brought them home!!!!!!!  We didn't put them back in the pen they'd gotten out of.  Instead; we put a round bale in our corral and incarcerated all eight of them.  They'll stay there to calm down and we're going to hang some new strong gates before turning them into a bigger lot.  
Home sweet home.  
When we crawled in bed last night we talked about the day.  We talked about how stressful it was.  
How thankful we were and our good neighbors.  
We'd been thanking God over and over and thought how different we'd have felt if we wouldn't 
have found them and if what if while we were in bed they were still out in those woods somewhere?
I grabbed my hobonichi and recorded the memory above.  

This morning during my devotional time I prayed.
Then  asked God for a word I needed.  
I asked Him to speak to this heart and grabbed my olde
journaling bible.  Sitting down with a cup of coffee I opened it up and it 
fell to 
this page.  
It says in the margin  11-25-14.
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.  

no herd in the stalls
no herd in the stalls
Boy did that get my attention.  
But so did that other little word:
YET.  
 I can tell you yesterday I did not rejoice. 
I really really wasn't rejoicing at all.
I was doing everything but rejoicing. 
I was worried sick.  
Myguy told me this morning that he was worried sick too.

During this study time; I thought about all the things that happen in life
where I tend to stop rejoicing.  
My focus so often shifts to circumstances and dwells there.
So I wrote this verse out in Habakkuk and added it into my Documented faith journal.
Yet I will rejoice is staying with me today.
Just wanted to share it with yall today.
It's something I hope to remember in 
days to come.  

xoxo 
Leaon Mary 





2 comments:

Terra said...

Yet I will rejoice; I am like you and tend to get diverted to worrying rather than rejoicing. Hard to do when your cows are wandering. I am glad you found them.

dianne said...

Thank you for sharing. I always get a touching message from your posts. I appreciate you.