I thought you might enjoy this look back in time to lessons learned while raising animals on our backyard farm. 

Can you hear wisdom’s call in the depth of your soul?  It’s that still small voice that we often hear, but don’t always heed.  And I’m guilty, too.  I so want to do things my way… but need to heed the reminder that my way is not always the best option.

I’ve shared before about the animals under my care as I grew up.  After moving to Lounsberry, NY in my mid-teens, we acquired a little over three dozen baby chicks in the mail... extras in case some didn’t survive the trip.  The tiny fluffy chicks were raised briefly under a lamp in a big box in the kitchen corner.  When they were big enough, we put them out in the ca.1930s chicken coop that I’d helped my dad renovate.  And then, from an auction, my dad obtained six adult Muscovy ducks for our menagerie.  My father had raised chickens, ducks and geese under his mother’s tutelage while growing up, while my mother helped her family care for at least 3000 chickens, and knew the importance of having a guard goose – which my youngest brother Ted named Honk!  My Dad had even been a delegate to Boston on a 4-H chicken judging contest!  With my parents’ love of farming, it was only natural that would be part of the legacy passed on to me.

So, imagine my excitement one day to discover a broody duck setting on eggs. After the first four hatched and were ready to face the world, Mama Duck took her little ones out for a stroll in the fenced-in chicken yard.  Coming home from school, I saw a little straggler left behind, trying to hatch itself.  Not knowing any better, I decided to help what I considered to be a poor little duckling abandoned by its Mama.  After breaking off pieces of the shell to create a wider opening, the little fella slipped out of the shell and lay quietly in the nest.  Sadly, he did not survive… simply because I had taken matters into my own hands and helped him hatch.  Unbeknownst to me at the time was the fact that chicks need to do the work of hatching on their own. 

There is a natural process that tells the chick when it’s time to escape its shell confinement, notably elevated carbon dioxide.  When this reaches a certain level inside the shell, the chick begins to flex its tiny muscles.  But before it begins to hatch, which can take up to or just over 24 hours, the chick absorbs the yolk and blood vessels inside the shell into its own body.  This will provide nourishment for a few days after the hatching.  Next, pipping begins with the tiny chick using its “egg” or “beak” tooth to make a tiny crack or hole through the membrane and shell so that vital oxygen can enter.  Gradually, it cracks the shell all the way around the large end of the egg.  Then, the little chick stretches until it throws off the protection of the shell and emerges, wet and floppy.  The chick should be left alone to dry as its feathers fluff to keep it naturally warm.  Soon enough it will be up and walking, under Mama’s tender care.

By feeling sorry for the little duckling left behind as its Mama and siblings went out for a stroll, I took matters into my own hands.  “I did it my way,” to quote Frank Sinatra’s famous song.  By assisting this tiny duckling to hatch, I did not allow it to go through the natural process established by our Creator.  And, sadly, I caused the demise of my littlest duckling.

From that painful lesson years ago, I realized doing life “my way” is not always the best option.  There’s a better way.  Unfortunately, I haven’t always sought the better way.  But if I learned anything, it’s that seeking wisdom is a life-long learning process.  We definitely don’t know it all in our youth… we need experience to gain knowledge to travel wisely through life.  And experience comes in realizing that we make mistakes because we don’t know everything… and, with humility, seeking advice from others.  Perhaps someone else studied the subject at hand, trained under a worthy teacher, and learned skills which we don’t have.  If only I’d asked my father how to care for my ducklings, I would not have rushed headlong into taking matters in my own hands.  But he was an over-the-road trucker at that time, and not instantly available.

By giving up “our way” as we seek wisdom from our heavenly Father through His word, we gain knowledge to live life under His guiding hand… a knowledge and love we can then share with others.  “Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”  (Proverbs 9:9-10) 

Listen To Me

Linda A. Roorda 

Where is my heart?  Where is my focus?

Where are my thoughts and my attention?

In idols that grab, my vision distort

Or is it heaven with treasures of gold?

Listen to Me and consider blessings

Focus upon the door of your heart.

Who has the key to enter therein

To whom give credence, to whom pay homage?

Hear wisdom’s voice as she calls your name

Heed her message with a joyful heart.

Welcome her words that direct your path

And dwell in peace by her guiding light.

Fear the Lord humbly with reverence and awe

Become the wiser as knowledge is gained

With confidence seek His will in your life

And choose the One who will guide in truth.

For the scales of justice weigh out every deed

To plumb the depth of my heart and soul

Balanced by truth from Your word alone

Will my life show my pride or Your love?

~~

PHOTO CREDIT: My photo taken of my Muscovy ducks 1971.