When you grow up around livestock, life lessons just come with the territory. Whether it’s the joy of seeing a brand new baby born or the sadness of seeing an animal die, farm kids just learn lessons at a younger age than most other kids. This is no more true for my girls than it was a couple of weeks ago.
The miracle of life will never cease to amaze me. Whether it is my own children (even if they do drive me crazy from time to time), or a newborn animal, it makes you realize how miraculous life really is. What has been even more of a blessing than anything else is being able to see my girls experience all those things.
I love watching my girls jump in and start to take responsibility for basic chores as they grow. My oldest daughter loves to check for eggs in the chicken coop (or in their playhouse, whichever the chickens choose to use on any given day). Her two little sisters almost always follow suit, sometimes resulting in a broken egg or two. All three love to help daddy whenever they can, right now it has been building fence. During the spring and summer, all three love to help check for vegetables in the garden, often resulting in some vegetables knocked off the vine or pulled before they are actually ripe.
Over the last month we have had another new responsibility added, and have had to learn a hard life lesson. During an extreme cold snap last month, several of our boer goats chose to have their babies all within the span of about 36 hours. Through a series of different circumstances, 2 of those babies ended up orphaned and needing to be bottle fed. One was on the verge of dying and ended up living in our house for over a week. She, or Hope as we named her, became a part of the family and after being a house goat for as long as she was, my girls (and I) became quite attached. Once she pulled through we moved her out with the other little orphan into their own pen. She did really well, until one of those hard life lessons hit unexpectedly. Sadly, after being out and doing well for quite a while, I found Hope dead one morning. Although we don’t know for sure what happened to her, it really didn’t matter to 3 little girls (and their mom). We were all devastated at the loss. Whether it is an old dog, a kitten, or a baby goat, that conversation never gets easier. However, my girls showed some sweet resilience. Although it wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have to have, when I broke the news to my oldest we were able to talk about death and heaven. After a good, hard cry, she made a sweet card for Hope and spent some extra time with our other orphan baby, Oliver.
As a mother, it’s so easy to want to shield our kids from hard things. But those hard things are exactly what builds resilience and can shape their character. This isn’t just the case with the the hard stuff like the death of a pet. It is also true with the daily routine of kids learning to do chores and learning the value of hard work. I am so proud of my girls when I see how they work for their dad. They love to do the little tasks that they are able to do, and my 7 year old is turning into quite the hand.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4
This verse has always served true in my life, and I know that every hard thing my girls go through will also help them to develop the perseverance they need to reach maturity. My prayer is that their father and I will help them to learn those lessons well.
Becki Koepke 