In farm and ranch life, you have a lot to deal with when seasons change. You have seasonal changes in the weather that causes your animals to be more susceptible to sickness, heat strokes, falling through the ice during the winter, slipping in the mud and getting injured and then all of the parasites with season changes. In the summer if you enter the drought season you have to watch your water sources and make sure your animals stay hydrated. As you can see there are many hard adjustments and things to deal with in the seasons changing.
In our personal lives seasons can be just as hard on us as it is for our livestock on our farms and ranches. What can we do to prepare and deal with our seasonal changes?
When you are preparing for the winter months for your livestock, you usually start preparing in the summer and fall months. You purchase or bale hay, you purchase your water tank heaters in the fall before your first freeze and stock up on feed if you are able to. When we start sensing a change is coming in our personal, spiritual, mental, and financial areas, we must prepare for what’s coming. Sometimes just like the weather here in Oklahoma is not predictable, the same with the exact knowing of the seasonal changes you’re sensing in your life.
With your livestock some of the most important things you can do is prepare to keep them fed, sheltered and kept hydrated. For us as humans these are also important. Let’s take this past the natural food, shelter and water though. We must prepare our seasonal changes through our relationship with God.
Jesus tells us in His word that He is the bread of life! John 6:35 Jesus is using a metaphor to describe His relationship with us and the spiritual food and nourishment that He provides.
The Bible talks many times about seeking shelter in God, and God being our shelter. Psalms 46:1 says God is our shelter and our strength. Shelter with God means protection from what the world throws at us to make us weak and vulnerable to prey. Just like when a calf gets sick and away from his shelter rather that is his mom or a barn to protect him from the predators, so the enemy of ours is watching for us to get away from our shelter!
In John 7:38 Jesus tells us that those who believe in Him will have rivers of living water flowing from within them. Just like livestock when the seasons change and are hard on their bodies, they need water to stay hydrated and we need His living water to stay spiritually flowing and healthy.
A couple of weeks ago we had a very cold and rough week here in NE OK. It took a toll on a lot of livestock. I had a hen here at Cross G Backyard farms who decided to go broody. I tried to get her to eat and drink and she refused the offer and then decided to leave her warm shelter in the middle of the night. . When she got weak the cold front was too much on her and she did not survive. How often do we refuse to partake of what God offers us? How often do we step outside of His shelter when we are already weak and stumbling in our walk? I can tell you that I have done this more than once and only by the Grace of God did I survive the seasons I was in at the time.
This is heavy on my heart today because we had to put down an injured calf and I begin to think about how hard the seasons are on the farmers and ranchers, and it dawned on me that they are spiritually hard on us all.
So, remember to seek shelter in God, let His living water flow though you, and partake of the bread of life (HIs word) every single day!
God bless each and every one of you!
Cassie Gilman
Cross G Backyard Farms
