Hope this finds you all having enjoyed your Sunday a day of worship and rest. Now before you start laughing and rolling on the floor please remember that this is what most people use Sunday's for. A day to catch up on thier rest and to unwind from the long week they had at work. Some still attend church and most do not but this is not going to be a blog about religion. It is however going to be enhanced by the message I was inspired with this morning at my home church.
Today's message was that there is a difference between being passionate about something and being compassionate about it. Both come from the some root. Your passion and desire to do what you do. Well this hit me as interesting and I began to ponder if I was passionate about my job and work with my farm or was I compassionate? Did I do everything with a gust of passsion that can't be stopped? Well of course not but by the same token my passion to love and build this farm is what gets me out the door each day and keeps me going when the bills are too high and the depths of sadness or work load are too heavy.
I started out to raise Nubian dairy goats as a fluke. It was simply a project for Dillon to get involved with and to have fun with after we lost Tyson. I actually allowed both Dillon and Amelia to pick the animal they wanted to purse and we would take it from there. Never dreaming anything of the full time job I was getting myself into as a mom and farmer's daughter. Amelia choose pigs and though you all know from time to time I do blog about our pigs they have never become a passion of mine and over time Amelia's passion for them has waned to now we have just the one pig soon to be none. She did however become passionate about her dislike for the goats and eventually talked grandpa into getting her a Jersey dairy cow. So I guess you could say we are all a bit passionate about dairy and if you know agriculture we couldn't have picked a bigger way to lose money if we tried.
And over the past 7 years I have come to love my dairy goats with a passion I never dreamed I would be blessed with. I mean why else would I willing lose sleep, make myself sick, and devote so much time to a group of animals during kidding season. However in the process of becoming passionate about these animals I have also met and mentored some wonderful people into the world of goats.
As I was sitting in church this morning the part about being compassionate is what hit me and brought me to my core. Am I compassionate about my abilty to help other goat owners? Do I really do this for the correct reasons and when I give of myself in this manner am I doing it for their benefit or for the animals benefit or is this some how selfish and for my benefit? Because to be compassionate you must give freely of your gifts and know they are there because God gave them to you. And it hit me that sometimes my anwser to this question can land in all three areas but rarely does it land in just the answer of for the glory of God to spread my gift he has given me.
Now as I said before this was not a sermon nor would I try to make it into one. However, I know I have been given a passion to love and carefor and learn about dairy goats. I also know I will spend the rest of my life learning and still never know enough. But at the root of this is do I have the compassion to share my gift with others. Not expecting a paycheck or a return in a monetary way because I am not a trained vet or a licenesed animal husbandry specialist. I am mearly a farmer's daughter that has a passion for goats and wants to see others develop a passion for them as well. Bottomline is that if I want to foster others passion I need to be compassionate to the point of giving myself, time and knowledge to them without expecting anything in return. And in the world we live in this is a mighty tough challenge to put yourself up to but its one that I am willing to try with God by my side. Will I always succeed? Probably not. Will I have the faith to try? I hope so.
So as I end this I want each of you to think about what your passion in life is. Once you know your passion is decide if you are just passionate or do you have the ability to become compassionate about your passion. Can you take the time to leave an impact on those around you whom share your passion with
Until we meet again............
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