On Being Concise

This morning, it rained.

I know...this should be a happy, ohmygoodnessitrainedpraisetheLord post, right?

Well, it kind of is.

However, at the moment that it was raining, a good soaker by the way, Joe stood at the window, pleading. I stood at the kitchen sink, head in my hands, peeking through my fingers as I watched my tree in the front yard sway.

Oh Lord, please let it rain, but, for heaven's sake, no WIND!!!

Thankfully, we seem to be unscathed. The winds came, maybe bent a little corn, but as of noon today, we have had an inch. Still only 12 more to go to make up the summer's deficit, but it's a start, right?

I knew from the start of being a farm wife, my prayers would be different. I knew that we were at our maker's mercy for a lot, so I better get good at praying and fast. However, what I have learned from this year, is that being concise in my prayers (for example, Heavenly Father, bless our farm with rain, but no winds over 15 miles an hour, no hail, no driving rains, and by the way...) is just going to drive this already-on-the-edge woman even more crazy! If I were to continue to pray like that, I would never be satisfied, never be content, and always be disappointed.

Ugh.

As I stood in my kitchen this morning, I announced that I might not be cut out for this farming stuff.

Well, duh...I don't think any of us are, really. No one should be so dependent upon concise requests without feeling really crummy most of the time.

So today, after our rains came, without wind or hail, I realized something, we're missing the big picture. While we worry about how the rain is coming down, we forgot to rejoice in the fact that it was, in fact, coming down. Pasture ground doesn't care if it's windy, right? Just that it got a drink so that it can start to produce it's cool weather grasses (Did you know that there are two types of grasses....cool weather and warm weather?? I didn't until this week, and have been sharing this knowledge to all who care (and those who don't) to hear!). That's something, right? I'm ignoring the corn that could have had some damage today, and am rejoicing in the fact that we have rain in our rain gauge, I used my rainboots to go out and get the mail, and that for once,