Grandview Livestock

03/10/2026

God’s Will for Your Life

My sprayer weaves violently back and forth down the imaginary line that is created through the field by the auto-steer system. I can’t get it to follow a nice, smooth path like it is supposed to. It is overworking itself. First pulling hard to one side then deciding it has gone too far and pulling hard to the other side but overcompensating each time and struggling instead of moving smoothly down the line I point it towards.

I’ve spent parts of several days making adjustments and re-reading the manual, but nothing seems to correct the problem. The machine still wants to weave back and forth instead of following the nice smooth line across the field that is marked out on the screen. This creates a lot of wasted motion not to mention that it is not very comfortable for me, as I am violently jettisoned from one side of the seat to the other.

This is how I used to feel when I was trying to figure out God’s will for my life. I felt like his will was a tightrope I was supposed to walk. If I teetered a little to the right or the left, I would get His second best. There would be a certain situation that I wanted God to tell me about. I would have a decision to make: what job to take, if I should purchase a piece of equipment, or if I should sell my grain or store it for a better price later.

There are thousands of decisions that we wish we knew what the future would bring before we make the decision. We ask the Lord for His counsel or a “sign” or set out a fleece as Gideon did in Judges Chapter 6. We cry out to God, “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Really, what we are after is “insider trading information”. Information that would result in making a good decision financially, or would benefit us in some other way, is what we really are asking for.

I have spent time in prayer asking God what He wanted me to do or what would be the best decision. I’ve felt like God commanded us to “do His will”, but then keeps it hidden from us or gives us small clues we would have to figure out or just guess at what He wants.

I’ve felt like I was constantly weaving back and forth down this imaginary line that was God's will for me and my future. Worse than that, the line was so vague I couldn’t figure out where it was, let alone stay on the path.
After studying Gods will as it has to do with my decision making, through the following two books, “Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View”, by Garry Friesen and J. Robin Maxson (Aug 11, 2004), and “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will”, by Kevin L. DeYoung and Joshua Harris (Mar 21, 2014), I was relieved to understand that God’s will for my life isn’t some tight rope I need to walk or a bull's eye I am trying to hit.

As long as I am not doing anything immoral or contrary to God’s word from the Bible, I am free to choose what I should do based on the wisdom that God gives freely to those who ask.

In James 1:5-7, God tells me to ask for wisdom and then believe I have it so that I’m not constantly weaving back and forth.

What I’ve come to realize is, many of us obsess over things God never mentions in the bible and pay little attention to the things he does tell us to do. We spend most of our time trying to figure out non-ethical decisions. We want God to give us insider trading information so our life will be easy and we are not responsible for the decisions we make. Once we say, “God told me….”, that ends all responsibility on my part, that ends all discussion but that’s not found as a common practice in the Bible.

What is found in the Bible are things Jesus and the Apostles tell us to do that are not in some spiritual code or hidden from us. Things like, do not be greedy and do not worry (Lk. 12), love your enemies and pray for them (Matt. 5:44). “Do not repay anyone evil for evil” (Rom. 12:17). “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you”(Luke 6:27).

Do you want to know if it is God’s will for you to marry a certain person? If that man or woman is of the opposite s*x (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:4-5), never been married before (Lk. 16:18) and you are both believers in Christ, (2Cor. 7:2, 6:14) the door is wide open for you to marry. If you are having problems in your marriage and wonder if God wants you to divorce your spouse, (Matt. 5:32) will tell you what God's will is.

Of course, we are free to choose our own will and follow our own ideas of what is best. We do it all the time.

How would our lives be different if you and I spent more time doing the things that we know the Bible commands us to do and ask for wisdom when confronted by things that the Bible doesn’t specifically address?
If you’re like me, (and I know you are but hate to admit it) do you ignore clear teachings from the bible that I don’t particularly like and dwell on the more hard-to-understand, controversial passages?

Do we spend more time praying for “insider trading information” than actually doing what we know the bible teaches?

Lord, give me such a desire to do your will that I just do it as I understand it and not dwell and waste time on things I don’t and will never understand. Conform me to the image of your Son.

01/10/2026

When the hay is 47 seconds late...

26/09/2026

Why Dead Animals Kill Me

I didn’t see her Saturday night when I was out late feeding a bottle kid. I didn’t see her Sunday morning, so I went looking and found one of the guard dog pups I was missing. She was dead.

I don’t know what killed it, and it really doesn’t matter. When an animal dies, even though there usually is nothing I could have done that I didn’t do, it threatens my manhood. When things go wrong, I feel like a loser. I feel inadequate to manage and take care of things I am in charge of.

Men must have work to do. They have to leave the cave, go out, kill something, and drag it home to be able to eat. It’s a God-given challenge we all have the need to live up to. It is what validates our existence. When things go wrong, when we are unable to perform this task up to our own expectations, it threatens our manhood.

When I find an animal dead, when I sell livestock and the check is not as much as I had planned, when a piece of equipment breaks down, or the market goes up after I sell my grain, or even when the price of fuel goes down after I fill the tank, I hear the voice. Though all these things and more are out of my control, when things go awry, I hear a voice saying, “You’re not good enough”, “You don’t have what it takes”, “See, I told ya you’d screw it up”.

Men are programmed in their DNA to be providers. Life is always a competition among them about who is the best at providing. When a bunch of guys go out hunting, it is about who kills the most; fishing, who catches the most. When men play sports, it’s about who wins. In life, who’s providing the most is what we see when we look at another man. This is based on the house they live in, the car they drive, the toys they have. It’s all part of the competition. It’s how we keep score.

When men meet each other, the first thing they ask is, “What do you do?” We are evaluating each other like two bulls that meet in the pasture, puffing up and flexing their muscles while blowing snot out their nostrils. Like two male dogs that meet and circle one another each trying to check out the other's manhood.

I’m sure if you’re a woman reading this, it doesn’t make sense to you, but you need to know.

It all started in Genesis and the curse on man after Adam “listened to his wife and ate from the tree”. (Gen. 3:17)

Work took on a new nature in that it was suddenly difficult, frustrating, and doggedly relentless. Man was tempted now to focus on his work, to focus on job performance to justify and validate his existence. Providing for your wife and family was no longer easy but demanding and challenging. Only the tough survived, and life became the testing ground to discover if you have what it takes to be a man. Manhood became defensible only by your success at being a provider. This is not the way God intended it, but how man twisted it because of the curse on the ground (Gen. 3:17-19).

The Bible explains God's story as he redeems the world, turning things back to the way they were before sin entered. With the coming of Christ and his defeat over sin and death, men can justify their existence once and for all by accepting it from Christ. Working for justification is unrealistic and unattainable. We are never good enough. If we think we are one day, we still have to do it again the next. There is always constant pressure to perform, to win the medal of honor, to be somebody. I don’t know about women, but no man strives to be average. We all think we have something to prove. Things going wrong, animals dying, drought takes our crops, our business fails, if we lose our job or our health, it sucks the life out of men. We no longer feel we are worthy of our existence.

But God makes our justification possible through Christ. Things can be as they were before the fall of man and the curse, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-24). He not only forgives our sins but gives us the Metal of Honor we desire as men, to wear with dignity. Not because of anything we did, but because we accept what he did. Knowing this is the easy part. Accepting and living it as a man is something I will always struggle with. Like any man, I have suffered defeat and disappointment. Animals under my care have died and crops withered in the brutal heat. This verse in Habakkuk has become my all-time favorite.

Though the corn lacks kernels on the ears
And the soybeans are brown in July,
Though hail flattens the wheat to the ground
And the grasshoppers have destroyed the grass,
Though the goats are without kids
And the cattle barns empty,
I’m joyfully praising GOD.
I’m doing flip-flops of joy to my Savior God.
I’m counting on GOD’s word to prevail,
I take heart and even gain strength (Habakkuk 3:17-19 , Greg Christiansen translation).

If you are a woman reading this, how can you give your man unconditional respect he so desires (Ephesians 5:33)?

If you are a man, take heart, gain strength, God is still on the throne, He is in charge so you don’t have to be.

What is it that you can quit being in charge of today, stop worrying about and let God be in charge of the outcome?

Lord, I would like to relax. I realize the only way I can do that is to let you be in charge of the world. Please give me wisdom and the ability to do what I can in any given circumstance, and the faith and trust in you for things that are out of my control.

25/09/2026

https://youtu.be/-LIZElnMclg

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23/09/2026

Sheep doing sheep things…and the farm security team checking in.

19/09/2026

The Profit of Pain

“My goats keep getting out. I built my electric fence, and I have 10,000 volts running through the wires, and my goats just go through it. They are getting shocked, but they keep going through it.”, The voice on the phone is frantically searching for an answer. I have gotten this call more than once, and my standard answer is, “Your pasture is too short, and they are hungry.”

You cannot starve a goat to death.

If your pasture is too short or undesirable, they will bolt right through the fence to get something to eat. They will take the pain of a 10,000-volt electric shock over the hunger pains every time. They realize there is gain after the pain. If their needs are satisfied, there is no pain of hunger; they are content to stay in the confinement of the pasture. This is a good thing if you are managing a herd of goats.

I have a friend whose son had a drug problem. After exhausting all other methods to help him, he called the police to arrest his own son. “It was the hardest thing I ever did”, he told me, “I was hoping the pain of the consequences would make him change and save his life.” It did, and today the young man is thankful for the love of his father. The pain of staying in the lifestyle he was in was greater than the pain and effort it took to finally change his behavior.

We are content to continue in sinful or self-destroying lifestyles until the pain of staying that way is greater than the pain to make a change. We often need to “hit rock bottom” before changing our behavior. The pain needs to reach a level that makes us want to do whatever is necessary to escape the anguish.

We all have heard of people who
– “After the bill collectors took his car, his boat, his house, and even his wife’s wedding ring, he was able to change his spending habits.”
- “After years of mistreating his body, the Dr. said, “You have a heart disease, and you must stop or face certain death in the near future.' He was able to make the necessary changes in his lifestyle.”
- “After losing several jobs and bankrupting his family, he finally faced his problem with alcohol and got the help he needed.”

As a father of three children, I found it much easier to let the natural consequences of my children’s actions (when appropriate), be the motivator for their change. In case you think this is the easy way out, let me assure you it is not. It is much easier to yell and fight with them than it is to watch them in pain. It is much easier to bail them out of their problems than to watch them suffer.

Why is it that the easy thing is seldom the best thing? As much as I love my children and it hurts me to watch them suffer the consequences of their actions, I will usually allow it for their good. Life is a much better teacher than I am.

How often has God cried tears over the consequences of sin in my life as I cried out to Him to take the pain away, but He was silent? How many times have I asked Him to save me from the consequences, but I suffered them anyway? Was He not there? Could He not hear me? No, not at all; He simply knew what was best for me. He let life teach me.

When we read the Bible, God tells us the best way to live life. But, I am reluctant to live that way and make the changes necessary until the pain of the natural consequences of sin is stronger than the pain of making a change. Much like pulling a thorn from my finger, there is pain for a short time while I work to get the sin out, but once removed it will eventually quit hurting.

Maybe I should trust God and live a Godly lifestyle to start with? Maybe I should repent from living the way I desire and trust that God knows the best way to live my life and follow his commandments.

I could make the changes necessary before the pain gets any greater.
What do you think? Good idea or not?

Is this practical?

Could a person actually live this way?

What if the Bible really is true?

Lord, I ask for courage and faith to live a biblical life, even though that is against my human nature and against everything in the culture and society around me.

17/09/2026

https://youtu.be/3TtgCxSAh_o

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15/09/2026

Goats: 10/10 curiosity. 0/10 common sense.

13/09/2026

Stockmanship in action.
Moving goats is more than just getting them from one place to another. Learn how to work with livestock instead of against them at this week’s Goat & Sheep Production School.

Come learn from real-world experience and bring your questions!

School is THIS WEEK — register now!
https://goatandsheepproduction.carrd.co/

12/09/2026

What’s Most Important to the Kids?
I am checking the newborn kids and lambs. One, a couple of days old, sees me and jumps up. Finding its mother, it starts nursing. Another one I startle jumps up and begins to nurse. In fact, every one of them I go by has a similar reaction. Are they all hungry, getting up and eating when I see them? Would they starve if I hadn’t come by and startled them, causing them to realize they were hungry?
I think it’s the sucking that soothes and calms them, just like our own children when they were young. I don’t ever see a kid or lamb run past its mother and look for its father. It’s their mother's responsibility to nurse and care for them. If you’ve ever had twins, you know, as I do, how hard it is to keep track of more than one infant at a time. They could use some help, but the Rams and Bucks are not involved in any way in the raising of their offspring.
This is also true for cattle and every domestic animal that I can think of. Most of the time the sires are taken out of the herd after breeding to control the birthing season.
This isn’t true for many wild animals. Emperor Penguins, Ostriches, Foxes, Wolves, and even Coyotes are just some of the many wild animals that the father is very involved in raising and training the young. They teach the young how to find food, survive, and thrive in an environment that is full of predators and enemies that want to kill them.
It seems to me that God’s design was for children to be raised by both a Father and Mother. In Matthew 19:4-6, when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees about divorce, he quoted Genesis 2:23-24, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”
Paul in Ephesians 5:22-24 makes it clear that the Husband is to be the Godly leader of his wife and family, saying, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
He compares a husband leading his wife to Christ leading the Church. It says to me that as husbands, we are to lead our wives spiritually. We are to be following Christ, and our wives should be following us. I picture men in the front with a sword drawn, blazing the trail, engaging danger, removing obstacles, and encouraging their wives that it is safe to come on up the trail. We are looking back and extending our hand to bring our wives up a rocky incline.
Paul goes on in the next chapter, saying in Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” So it’s not just my wife but also my children whom I lead, train, and instruct in the Lord. We can’t lead where we haven’t gone. We are climbing the hill to spiritual maturity, Christ's likeness, and leading and bringing our family up behind us.
I think many men actively teach their children good things. We’re coaching their teams, teaching them to hunt and fish. We help them with their schoolwork, read books to them, and discipline them when it’s needed.
As men, we teach them responsibility and mold their character. Society shouts out that sports and physical activity are a high priority to teach. I wonder if we leave out the most important thing?
What good is it if we teach our kids how to hunt or catch fish if we don’t teach them about the one who created the fish and animals and provides for us? What good is it if we teach them how to throw a ball, tackle an opponent, and coach their teams but don’t teach them about the creator of the universe? How much of our lives are invested in taking them to practices and games compared to spiritual training? The former is good but temporary. The latter is best and lasts forever. I don’t think it is either/or, but one should be a higher priority.
When you and I pass on from this life and leave them, will they know for sure where we are spending eternity? Who is teaching them about a holy God and how to have an eternal life in heaven with him?
It is sad if children only remember their dad as a good person and a great coach, but don’t know the truth about heaven. That no one is good enough to get in on their own. If never been taught about a relationship and accepting the free gift of grace from the one who died and paid the price of their sin, how will they know?
Mark 8:36 said it well, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul (New International Version)?”
What good is it if they win the championship, yet forfeit their soul (GC version)?
Lord, prod us Dads, to teach our kids what is most important and will last forever. Not one of us wants to be a slacker when it comes to teaching our kids the things they will need to know to be successful in this life. Remind us to also teach them what they need to know in the next life that will matter most.