God's wonderful blessings

If you are squeemish, you may not want to read this post.

Ok, I admit, maybe not quite what I thought earlier today, but I have been praying for His strength all week. Boy does God always come through. I just feel like/want to sing God's praises for His help for a very tough day.

Cow with a broken leg/hip. Nothing can be done - God provide me with a son whose aim with a gun is true. He was able to kill the animal with a single shot. Her death was immediate. I am so thankful God has given my son both the strength to carry out a difficult task as well as the ability to do it quickly. I also praise God that we have a good friend who came over with her tractor to help us move the animal (she was to big to lift). God also is to be praised for the friends who loaned us a trailer to use to get rid of the deceased animal. I praise God also that another good friend's son was able to come and help be sure we got the jugular vein cut once the animal was destroyed. I also thank God that the animal did not go through nearly as many tremors as we expected. I thank Him that the internet is loaded with others who have had similar experiences so I could prepare everyone with details about blood and muscle spasms, etc..

Another praise - another (much younger)son who gets very uptight about animals who die has come through just fine. He didn't like any of the things that had to happen, but he understands and can appreciate that the ability to shoot straight is valuable, the ability to continue when the pressure is mounting is valuable and God's strength carries us through these things, not ours alone. I know this to be true as my instincts said ignore it and it will go away. Yeah - right. I praise God for being who He is - that He is all powerful and all knowing. That He provides strength when needed (when my son was getting ready to shoot, I was holding on tight to the barn - taking an animal's life is not something to be done lightly - God's strength carried all of us through).

Was any of this easy - no. Was it fun - no. Was it needed - yes. God will always provide us the strength we need to carry through difficult tasks. We may not enjoy them (this cow was raised from a calf by the kids), but we will be strong enough to complete the task.

My last praise to list in this post is for some on-line scrapping friends. There is no way they could know what was going on at my place, but Helen's Chuckle for the day listing was great! Laughter truely releases a lot of tension and it worked wonderfully to get everyone to just relax. After taking care of things, I was checking out the site and found this gem:

Sheriff stops at a ranch in rural MO
and talks with an old farmer.

He tells the farmer, 'I need to inspect
your ranch for illegal grown drugs.'

The old farmer says, 'Okay, but don't
go in that field over there.'

The Sheriff verbally explodes saying,
'Mister, I have the authority of the
Sheriffs Department with me.' Reaching
into his rear pant pocket and
removing his badge. The officer proudly
displays it to the farmer.
'See this badge? This badge means
I am allowed to go wherever
I wish..on any land. No questions asked
or answers given.
Have I made myself clear?
Do you understand?'

The old farmer nods politely and
goes about his chores.

Later, the old farmer hears loud screams
and spies the Sheriff running for
his life and close behind is the farmer's
bull.

With every step the bull is gaining ground
on the officer. The Sheriff is clearly
terrified.

The old farmer immediately throws down
his tools, runs to the fence and yells
at the top of his lungs.....

'Your badge!
Show him your badge !