Fortitude

What fills your tank as you start this new year? Do you have New Year's resolutions? What are your goals? What's going to keep you going? Fortitude is your inner horsepower. Fortitude is the fuel for strength and courage in tough times. Fortitude is acquired by will power (working as if everything is dependent on you) and prayer (praying as if everything is dependent on God).

Willpower is the strong determination to do something difficult. Like cleaning the shop wash bay pit. There will be things in 2020 that aren't necessarily going to be easy. However with fortitude we will have a productive year. Thanks for cleaning the shop pit Pablo and Alex. 

 Prayer is communication with God. It can be an expression of thanks. It can be a request for help. Communication with God doesn't happen just on Sundays and just in church. It's a good thing at family meal times. Prayer can happen on the go. However we should all have a set aside time and place where we personally visit with our Heavenly Father. It's a relationship with the Ruler of the universe. Another thing. We don't just pray for ourselves and ask that others get their act together. We should pray for others and ask for help that we get our own act together. 

Willpower and prayer. In 1986 I needed fortitude. 29 years old. Four little kids. Jan was down with her back. My hogs were dying faster than I could bury them. The bank told me I was a poor risk. I was behind in my work. I thought I had the willpower to just put in as long of days as it would take to make things happen. I was wrong. Late one night in mid June while struggling to mow 1st cutting hay on this hill behind the cabin I got on my knees next to my tractor tire and asked God for some help. He's been helping me ever since. 

 Remember Y2K. Things were supposed to go haywire when we hit the new decade, the new century, coming up to the year 2000. Jan suggested back then we go up that same hill, pray for our new year, pray for our children, and their future families. There were no grandkids, no pond, no machine shed, no cabin. The old farm house was beginning to get emptier as our children grew up and left home.  

This past New Years Day we started a new year and a new decade. Our culture and our countries condition makes it look like we are going to need some fortitude. I asked Jan if she would join me on the hill again. We felt God's presence. He was listening as He always does when our heart is sincere. It made me wonder what and who to pray for. As the sun was coming up over the hill we ended our prayer praying for our grandkid's future families. Gideon and John built this coffee table made from truck gears and springs.

We spent New Years afternoon mowing field edges, waterways, and road ditches.

Our mild winter weather so far has made for good roads. We are still busy hauling grain. Soybean prices have rebounded and were near their contract highs before they sold off on Friday.

The end of a calendar year, a tax year, and a business year gives one an opportunity to evaluate. The beginning of a new year gives one the opportunity to project and plan. I have spent significant time at my desk this past week.

With our unusually warm temps and a rain event last weekend, we no longer have frozen ground. So when the nights get in the mid 20s and the ground gets dry on top we were able to apply NH3 late last week. This is nitrogen fertilizer for next years corn crop on acres where hog honey is not applied.

As a Christmas present, the gals planned an outing for our family Friday evening and Saturday morning. So we went to a motel in Des Moines with a water park, went swimming, and had pizza. Thanks girls. I always enjoy time with family.

The next morning all 35 of us went to the Machine Shed for breakfast. It was fun. The last time we went here as a family there were just 8 of us. It was August, 1995 in the old blue van. We went out for supper as a family before we dropped 17 year old Mike off at a motel across the road. At that time he was heading to Camp Pendleton, California for Marine boot camp. I remember as a parent leaving Mike at the motel with a lump in my throat praying for fortitude.

Helping others overseas takes fortitude. It also takes a servant heart. Last Sunday we stopped and told landlords and friends, Ed and Mary, goodbye. They left to help in Cambodia.

They arrived safely and below Ed is giving it his best shot to try growing some sweetcorn. Thanks for the picture Mary.

Being servanthearted isn't just for overseas. A servants heart is acquired by caring for others, and humility. Caring for others requires making one's self less and others a priority. Humility is not an inability. It's not being weak. Humility is idling horsepower.

Fortitude is going to help get one's self through our coming new year. A servant's heart is giving a helping hand to help others get through their new year. Blessings on your 2020. See you next week.