by Barbara Latta
Cows know how to rest. Living in a rural area, I have plenty
of opportunities to pass fields full of cattle. One thing I have noticed is
that cows are either lying down chewing their cud or they are standing up with
their noses in the grass grabbing more food with their teeth.
They are not distracted by passing cars or planes overhead.
They don’t care if the wind blows or rain pours down upon their backs. They
continue feeding on the nourishment of the land because feeding is the most
important aspect of their lives. They rest in the middle of the chaos going on
around them.
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| We can learn from the cattle in the field |
We are bombarded night and day with negative information
pouring down upon us like the rain that hits the back of the cattle in the
fields. Distractions pass us on the highway of daily living and the winds of
terror blow against our faith when fearful events occur.
How can we keep our thoughts from straying into the waves of
doubt and negativity with so much evil around us?
We can learn from the cattle in the fields.
When the cows chew grass they swallow it and then later
regurgitate it to chew it again. This is what we call chewing their cud. They
lie down in the cool shade and again chew the grass they ingested earlier. This
sounds gross to us humans, but it is the way the animals get all the nutrients
from their food.
God’s Word is our food. Sometimes we skim over it in a
hurried reading as if the text is only a snack. Snacks don’t contain a lot of vitamins.
But to retain all the spiritual nourishment the Word offers, we need to
meditate on what our heavenly Father is saying to us.
The Hebrew word for meditate is hagah which means to murmur, mutter or growl. Murmuring the content
of what we read over and over to ourselves is how we “chew our cud” and get all
the benefit to our souls.
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| Ingesting God's Word keeps our focus on Him and we won't be distracted by the world. |
To combat the aspects of the world we live in we need to
focus on our nourishment like the cows do, as if feeding is the most important
aspect of our lives. Because really it is. We do this by ingesting God’s Word
and keeping our focus on our food so we won’t be distracted by the things of
the world.
Daily partaking of food nourishes our body. Unless we are
fasting, we make eating our meals a priority of each day. God’s Word nourishes
our soul and when we make this more important than anything else, we can combat
the evil, negative and fearful enemies that invade our thinking and tempt
attitudes.
Learning from cattle can show us how to rest in the middle
of chaos and keep our minds focused on the nourishment of life.
What’s your favorite cud to chew? Share your thoughts.
TWEETABLES
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