{"id":1104,"date":"2020-04-06T16:50:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T16:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2020-04-06T17:26:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T17:26:28","slug":"donkey-conduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/donkey-conduct\/","title":{"rendered":"Donkey conduct :)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever tried to direct a donkey?\u00a0 Have you tried to move him somewhere he doesn\u2019t want to go?\u00a0 Many of you know Matthew, the donkey who has been with us for many years.\u00a0 In fact, he came to Christian Way Farm during the Easter season several years ago.\u00a0 Our family was helping our church with an Easter play.\u00a0 Milt (believe it or not) had a non-speaking part (that part is believable) as a disciple.\u00a0 The farm didn\u2019t have many animals and I wanted a mini-donkey.\u00a0 One afternoon Milt and Craig disappeared.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t tell me where they were going and they were gone all afternoon.\u00a0 Members of the cast were supposed to be at the church and Milt and Craig had not arrived.\u00a0 People were calling me to see where they were.\u00a0 Soon they came rolling into the church parking lot\u2014in the farm truck with a trailer in tow.\u00a0 Out of the trailer came the sound—a bray of a most unhappy donkey! The guys had picked him up on a farm south of Clarksville and he was ready to come out of the trailer.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Matthew <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t till after the play that evening that I met Matthew.\u00a0 (He ended up being named for the disciple Milt was portraying in the Easter play).\u00a0 He was a sweet animal, but he definitely wasn\u2019t a mini\u2026.but Milt brought him home anyway.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Matthew\u2019s early years he was much more rambunctious than\nhe is now.  That was probably 17 or 18\nyears ago and we think he was 4 or 5 years old when we got him.  But Matthew has always dominated his\npasture.  We often have to keep him\nseparate from the other young animals because he bites and kicks to get his\nway.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember one such occasion that Matthew wasn\u2019t conducting himself well and we needed to put him in a barn stall.\u00a0 Craig was probably about 11 or 12 years old at the time and we had a young friend here who was about 13 or 14.\u00a0 The two boys were tasked with leading Matthew to the barn and putting him in the stall.\u00a0 They had been gone a while and I went to check on them.\u00a0 Here they were\u2014inside the barn stall and Matthew was outside.\u00a0 There was a board on the ground across the entrance about 5 inches tall.\u00a0 The boys were inside pulling on the rope around Matthew\u2019s neck and Matthew wasn\u2019t budging.\u00a0 He had his front hooves wedged against that board and he was pulling back as hard as the boys were pulling forward.\u00a0 It was a definite tug-of war and Matthew was winning\u2014he wasn\u2019t going into that stall.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I walked up on this scene I happened to notice a potato fork hanging inside the barn.\"\"\u00a0 It seemed like the perfect option.\u00a0 I certainly didn\u2019t want to get near Matthew\u2019s backside as I had seen him kick.\u00a0 But quickly I grabbed the potato fork and assisted Matthew in his decision to enter the barn stall.\u00a0 I took the potato fork (which isn\u2019t as sharp as a pitchfork for those concerned about his well-being) and jabbed Matthew in the backside.\u00a0 Immediately Matthew entered the barn stall!\u00a0 The boys didn\u2019t know what happened but suddenly found the donkey in the stall with them.\u00a0 The quickly exited and shut the door behind them.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning I was reading one of my favorite passages:  Psalm 32. \nAs Milt and I navigate the waters of a temporarily closed business, it\u2019s\nnot easy to consider what we have in front of us.  The government is dangling some options for\neconomic help in front of us but we aren\u2019t clear about what is the best\nsolution for us.  This verse gives me\ngreat solace as I realize I will get the guidance I need if I listen to the\nLord:  \u201cI will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;   I will counsel you and watch over you.\u201d<\/em>  This has been one of my favorite verses and\noften guided me in the years I was a homeschooling Mom.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But today the next verses, spoke to me about our world\u2019s\ncurrent situation:  \u201cDo not be like the horse or the mule (or donkey), which have no\nunderstanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to\nyou.  Many are the woes of the wicked but\nthe Lord\u2019s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him.\u201d  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately the story of Matthew came to mind.  Trying to get that stubborn donkey into a\nplace of safe-keeping and it took a painful experience for him to get him where\nhe needed to be.  My thought this morning\nis whether I am listening carefully to the Lord or whether I am stubbornly\nrefusing to go where God wants me to go for my good and His glory.  Does He have the potato fork poised, ready to\naim at my backside if I don\u2019t go where He is leading? Or maybe like the\nScripture, I am being led by a bit and bridle, but again those work because the\npain the mouth of the animal is what causes him to move.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I pray we each are examining where we are \u2013are we listening for what the Lord has for us during this down time or are we so busy being frustrated and fearful that we aren\u2019t listening to the Lord for His guidance, correction and peace.\u00a0\u00a0 Or maybe we don’t even know God and the peace that He gives. If you find yourself without hope or without answers, just ask God for His wisdom. Ask us. We are glad to share His Good News with you so that when all get to the other side of Covid-19 this can be the song on our lips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing all\nyou who are upright in heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Righteousness and uprightness comes from our relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 I pray that you will start a new relationship with Him or strengthen the one you already have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pray with us that we will all walk through to the other side of this pandemic time and become kinder, wiser and closer \u00a0to Jesus.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We love and miss you and can\u2019t wait to see you!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janie and Milt <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever tried to direct a donkey?\u00a0 Have you tried to move him somewhere he doesn\u2019t want to go?\u00a0 Many of you know Matthew, the donkey who has been with us for many years.\u00a0 In fact, he came to Christian Way Farm during the Easter season several years ago.\u00a0 Our family was helping our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1112,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions\/1112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}