“My child, listen and be wise; keep your heart on the right course.”

 I heard this story on Sunday and I will do my best to repeat it as it was shared.

There was a farmer who raised sheep.  He had a neighbor who had recently acquired dogs.  A few weeks after the dogs joined the neighborhood, the farmer found his neighbor’s dogs attacking and killing one of the farmer’s sheep.  The farmer immediately approached his neighbor about the incident and asked that his neighbor curb his dogs.  The neighbor said he would try, but shortly thereafter the dogs attacked another sheep.  This time the farmer felt like he needed to take the situation in his own hands and began to think through alternatives.  The first thing he thought of was to buy a gun and the next time the dogs came into his farm he would shoot the dogs and be done with the problem.  But on further thought he knew that by shooting the dogs he would only set up a larger confrontation with the neighbor that could escalate.  So, abandoning that idea he considered suing his neighbor.  That too would cause greater consternation and also with the cost of a lawyer and a deep seated belief he had that suing others was not right, he finally looked into what it would cost to build a fence between the properties.  After surveying and realizing that the cost of fencing his entire property so that the dogs couldn’t get in, that he couldn’t go that route either.  So, standing outside at night and considering if he had any other alternatives, he talked to God.  The farmer said, ‘God, I’ve thought of all I can do, what do you think I should do?”  It was then and there that a new idea came to the farmer and he thanked God for speaking to him with a thought he never would have had on his own.  The next morning the farmer took two of us his small lambs who had been recently been born and walked over to his neighbor’s house.  He approached his neighbor and said, “I thought that your two daughters should have their own lambs to love and raise so I wanted to bring these little guys over as a present for them.”  The neighbor was very appreciative and his girls were ecstatic with joy.  As the farmer was walking back to his own property he said over his shoulder to his neighbor, “Oh, and you probably want to be sure and chain up your dogs as we know they aren’t very nice to sheep.”  The farmer never saw the dogs on his property again.

God tells us what course to take if we can get our hearts right with Him and listen to what He has to say to us.  He will open up new ideas and ways of thinking for us on how to deal with tough co-workers, neighbors, and everyone else in our lives.  We just need to ask and trust His course.

Reference:  Proverbs 23:19 (New Living Translation)