Mar 24, 2022
Lord,
There's a story about the time a bunch of people ripped off the roof of a house and lowered their ailing friend down into the room for you to perform a miracle and give healing and strength.
I'm not sure what the roof of heaven looks like, but there's a bunch of us ready to rip off the roof tiles to lower our farm and ranch friends into your midst for a few miracles and healing and strength.
It's been my opinion for some time you like farmers and ranchers more than the rest of us and I'm okay with that. After all, you put the first man and woman on a farm. Sure, it was called Eden, but from what I can tell, you tasked them with doing the same thing farmers and ranchers do now; take care of plants and animals. You could have easily called it, "Eden Farm and Ranch."
But right now, between obscenely rising costs just to plant seeds, feed animals, run their equipment combined with Mother Nature's schizophrenia, the war in the Ukraine, trade wars, activists with hidden financial agendas, corporations creating fear about food just so they can make money, and 97% of people living in cities trying to tell people who live in the country how to do their job, our farmers and ranchers need a few miracles, healing and strength.
Help us, those who are 97% of the population and don't have a clue how much they really care about their land and livestock, to figure out ways to support them rather than jump on the bandwagons of those out to destroy them.Help us get to know them as we get out of our comfy city environs into their lives and see how much they care about the soil, plants and animals because they're better stewards than those of us living in concrete jungles creating a billion times more pollutants and methane than a cow who toots once in a while.
Help us to trust them. For crying out loud, if the farm Mommas and Daddies feed their own babies the meat they grow and products from the grain they grow, then we should trust them rather than the latest supposedly "scientific" report that attacks them and makes us fear them. I mean, really? I know people who lived to be 101 that ate eggs and bacon every morning of their lives and the latest "scientific" report has flip-flopped once again (how many times is this in my lifetime? 100?) on whether eggs are good or bad for you. I know you love me because you invented bacon.
Help us know that both organic and conventional farming is good for us and one is not "better" than the other; they're just different.
It would also be really good if you could give Pinocchio type noses to corporations, grocery stores and anyone else who lie to us or try to deceive us with labels. On this one I ask for a Pretty Please with Sugar on Top because we have a hard time figuring out who is really lying to us.
Remind us that everything, even our own bodies, is a chemical and that chemical is not a four letter word. Heck, there are chemicals that nature itself produces that will kill us if we're not careful.
Please help the 3% of the world that feeds us. From what I see, the 97% is trying to bite the hands that feed them.
Give them courage. I simply do not have the courage to do what they do. Nope, not one bit. I'm like Abner Sprague, the farmer-turned-hotel-owner that started the industry in Estes Park: "I'd rather lose my money in a casino where I could have a bit of fun rather than farming which involves such hard work."
Give them hope. You know more than the rest of us how many of them across the nation are taking their own lives. The suicide rate is awful, but you know that already. So, for those who are literally at the end of their rope, watching their life and the livelihoods of three, four, five and six generations disappear, light a fire of hope deep in their darkness. Help us support them with a hug and an actual prayer, rather than just saying that our prayers and thoughts are with them.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, Lord, but it appears to me that farmers and ranchers are in the crosshairs more than any other group I know.
Most of all, give them the assurance that they are needed, necessary and valued. May the voices of people like me, who really are the vast majority of people who love and respect farmers and ranchers, drown out the voices of the loud-mouth minority who will literally bite the hands that feed them.
So here I am, ripping off one of the roof tiles. I know I'm not alone. We don't know what to do, so we bring them to you.
Please do what we can't, but also help us know the best way we can be your agents to provide a miracle and healing and strength.Amen
P.S.One way to really help and encourage farmers and ranchers is by buying their product. Although thoughts and prayers are nice, buying their product gives them an incredible amount of encouragement!
You can find a farm and ranch near you by going to our searchable map & directory!