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"A Lesson in Plowing - and Life" by Rev. Weldon Bares


Abraham Lincoln once told the story about a farmer who was trying to teach his son how to plow a straight furrow. He told the boy to keep his eyes on some object at the other end of the field and to plow straight for it.

The kid started plowing and the farmer went about his daily chores. Several hours later he returned to check on his progress. He was shocked at what he saw. Instead of straight rows, he saw something that looked like a question mark.

What had happened? The boy had followed his father's guidance and had fixed his eyes on something at the other end of the field . . . a cow. Unfortunately, the cow moved and continued to move!

His father had forgotten to tell his young son to look for a STABLE object, one that would not move or shift around.

I am afraid that is the case for many of us. We are fixing our eyes on things that are not stable, on things that continue to shift and move. Because of that, our lives are one big question mark. We continue to plow ahead with our lives, but so much of it is meaningless.

What is the answer? In the Christian faith we believe that the answer is to focus our eyes and our hearts on the most stable thing in life, the One the Bible proclaims, "is the same yesterday, today and forever," Jesus Christ. When we keep our eyes focused on Him, somehow, life seems to make more sense and is certainly more stable.


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