God's Corn

Sorry, it's been a while. We've been BUSY! Let's see...Little Sassy Pants turned 3, we all went to the TN State FFA Convention in Gatlinburg (first trip with all 4 of us and the students...wonderful, but EXHAUSTING!), FFA Plant Sale, Easter, Prom, FFA Banquet, Graduation, planting gardens, robbing bee hives, Wild Man turned the big 1...oh me!!! I don't know if I'm coming or going. It feels like I'm on a roller coaster just trying to hang on and keep my eyes open to see what's coming next. Literally trying to keep my eyes open...I'm pretty tired. :)

I say all of that to tell you this. In the midst of all this craziness, I met God in a whole new way. He gave me peace like I haven't felt in a while, and He carried me when I had no strength. There are many more posts to come about the past few months, but for now, I will just tell you one story. Settle in and listen to what God has been doing.

So, I mentioned we attended the TN FFA Convention in the Spring. While there, Jeremy began talking to someone about growing corn. What is really funny about that is, we can't grow corn. I am from an area of TN with rows and rows of corn, year after year after year. I grew up with it surrounding me. However, for some reason when we plant it in our garden, it flops. After talking to this gentleman, Jeremy began to get excited about the possibility. We came home, and he couldn't get it out of his head. He felt that God was leading him to plant corn. That in itself was something for me to ponder, but it gets better. Jeremy wanted to start the seeds in the greenhouse, find a big enough piece of land somewhere close to our house, lay drip tape and black plastic down and then plant the corn...in MARCH! I'm just going to tell you, it took a lot of faith on my part. Now, I don't doubt God's ability to do things. I know He can do the seemingly impossible. Where I struggle is knowing if God wants to do these things through me. I doubt my ability to hear Him clearly. The only thing to do in a situation like that is pray. Well, we did. We prayed alot. And then we planted the corn.

Planting the seeds in plug trays was the easy part. I love to plant and work in the garden and with it being early Spring, I was eager to get my hands in the dirt. This was great! Now, the more challenging part, Jeremy is VERY busy during the Spring semester. The window for transplanting the corn was very narrow. We wound up laying plastic and transplanting about 1600 corn plants by hand in 2 days. Let me tell you, if you want to test a marriage, just try to lay black plastic with drip tape in a straight row on a windy day with a 3 year old who wants to help with EVERYTHING and a 9 month old who tries his best to eat dirt every time you turn your back. It'll let you know what you're made of believe me! Despite all of this, we got it done. It was about 9 pm and we were planting with headlamps on, but it got done!

Next came the frost. Of course, the year we decided to try this experiment was one of the craziest Springs ever. It was COLD. The frost kept coming. We prayed. There was one night we looked at the weather and decided we had to try to cover the corn to save it from frost. We got plastic drop cloths and did our best to cover the rows. However, it was windy. The plastic was going to beat the tender plants to death. There was nothing we could do. Right then and there, I dropped to my knees in the dirt and cried. I pleaded with God. Jeremy knelt beside me and we both prayed. As that prayer ended, I cannot tell you the peace that flooded my soul. My tears immediately dried and I knew it would be ok. Know what? The frost came, but it was patchy, and it missed the corn field.

Things like that happened over and over. Our corn is some of the most prayed over corn in the world, I can tell you that. More that once we stopped in the middle of that field to pray. Too much cold, not enough sun, bugs, pests, etc. You name it, that corn has been through it. But God. I don't know if growing this corn was as much about extra income for us as much as it was teaching us to completely rely on God. I can't tell you about all the lessons we've learned through this process.

Now, we are about half way through harvesting. We don't have as much as we had hoped. It's not a bumper crop for sure. A few days after we began picking, a wave of thunderstorms rolled through and blew 1/3 of it down. But God. He is here. He was there in the cold and in the dark of night when we planted. He was there in the frost. He was there on the endless cloudy days and when the insect started to come. What we have learned in all of this is: He is there. He called us to perform a large task, and He has been there every step of the way. It may not have turned out exactly the way we planned, but He knew what we needed. We needed to rely on Him and know that even in the trials and storms, God is good! We are blessed. Every day. Through the good and the bad. When times are tough and when everything is blissful...God is good and we are so richly blessed.