If you haven’t noticed, I talk a lot about God and our faith on this blog. For me it’s something that I couldn’t separate even if I wanted to. Every detail of our lives are engrained with God’s handiwork, and if I’ve been entrusted to tell our story, I’m going to tell it right. I know there are plenty of people out there who farm and don’t believe in God, but I couldn’t. I see the constant struggles in this life, and I know where to run to. I know WHO to run to.

As most of you know, I wasn’t born into the farming way of life. I had little idea of how it really was until I married into it. At the beginning I saw firsthand the stress and heartache that went into elements beyond humanly control. The sun, the temperature, the soil health, the rains. the droughts, the pests, the weeds, the commodity prices. It was exhausting just to watch. I saw these farmers as gamblers. Addicted to the game year after year, laying it all on the line and hoping for just the right conditions that their bets would pay off.

But the longer I was on the farm, the more clearly I saw things. The farmers may still lay it all on the line, but there’s just as much of a trust as there is a gamble. For my family, it’s a faith that God will provide the rains and the elements needed year after year. That doesn’t mean that every year will be a bountiful harvest filling our storehouses, but it means he will see us through even in the times of drought and famine.

I don’t know the author, but I love the quote that says “There is no better demonstration of faith, than a man planting seeds in a field.”

And really think about that for a second. It takes an insane amount of faith to year after year take the time, effort, and money to plant acres and acres of soil. The longer I am in this farming life, the more I see that can go wrong. Everything has to align together so well to make that plant germinate, grow, and ripen for harvest. And if you’re a farm wife like me, then listen up for a second. I know the stress you feel right along side of your farmer when you wonder if that rain is ever going to come, or if those pests will ruin your crop, or if it is even possible for just ONE more piece of machinery to break, or if the price of wheat could drop any lower.

So let me tell you how to get some of that stress off of your shoulders. Take it to Jesus, sweet friend. He already knows our needs, and he has us. Trusting God and having a solid faith in his plan for not just the farm, but for all aspects of our lives, that doesn’t mean things will go right, it just means we don’t have to deal with them alone. I go through spells where my heart hardens and without even knowing it, I am trying to do things on my own; to trust in myself. I don’t realize it until I am exhausted and defeated and remember where it is I should be turning to. It is then after I go running back to my solid foundation, and I am once again submerged in the word, that I realize Jesus really will help carry our burdens. And even though our circumstances might not change, our outlook does. We can have faith that we don’t have to worry. Whenever I can really feel the anxiety coming on, I have this verse that I go to every time to give me the reminder I need. Hopefully this verse will help you too, because I promise you don’t have to live this life alone.

Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.