Christmas is my favorite time of the year. In this fast-paced world we live in, I am thankful for the time set-aside to remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and I'm thankful that it reminds us that we need to be kind to others, pray for peace, and spend time with family and friends.
I know that we shouldn't need a specific time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and I believe we should celebrate his life daily in how we live and our attitude about life, but have you noticed how much happier the majority of people are at Christmas? I have often thought about what this world would be like if we didn't celebrate Christmas and have this reminder of what is important in life and that we need to slow down, and take the TIME to be with our loved ones.
Since my life and this blog is focused on the livestock and agriculture industry, I want to reach out to parents, grandparents, and friends working with kids with livestock projects. Christmas is a time of giving, and I want to impress upon you that the best thing you can give that young livestock person is your time. You don't have to shower them with hundreds of dollars worth of equipment or spend a large amount of money on an animal. A child will learn more from you just by spending more time with them, whether it's at your barn feeding and doing chores together, helping to halter-break next year's project, or traveling to area producers for a day of sorting livestock and learning how to choose the next project animal.
My entire family is involved in the livestock industry so our vacations and family travels have almost always had a livestock theme. We work our vacation times around state fair schedule, jr. nationals, and state sponsored shows. Some of our favorite trips have been the 3 or 4 day excursions to the Midwest on labor day weekend to visit a variety of farms, looking for that one great animal! Of course these trips are educational, but also wonderful family TIME. I believe our kids learned so much on such trips, just by visiting with the producers and viewing all the cattle.
Since we are only a few days from Christmas, most of you have your shopping complete, so think of the time you can spend with the livestock kids in your life in the coming year.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas!
Help one another; there's no time like the present, and no present like the time ~ James Durst
