What is your worth? I don’t necessarily mean a dollar amount. I mean what are you worth? What are you worth to others? What are you worth to your friends and neighbors? What are you worth to your community? What are you worth to God?

The older I get, the more worth I find in most everything: The old pictures that I crave to see. The people I am around. The old 8N Ford tractor and its little two bottom moldboard plow. The 45-year-old pickup that has a little rust on it. The old cow who looks like she is 30 years old, but she still weans you a good calf every year. All have such an undeniable value that I think we, as modern day humans, overlook all the time.

I continually make fun of our house and rightfully so most of the time. I tell people all the time that our house leaks so much air that when the wind is blowing just right, electric light bulbs will even go out. However, most of the time it keeps us dry and warm. It provides shelter and isn’t that what a house is supposed to do?

We tend to downgrade or discount old things, and I see those things with such wisdom and good memories. We live a life of convenience. We want our stuff, and we want it now. We don’t have time to waste, do we? That’s where all the advancements have come from isn’t it? In agriculture we have to cover more acres, faster. We have to have livestock that gain faster with better feed efficiency so we can make more money. There isn’t really anything wrong with that. We as farmers and ranchers have to feed the world. It is probably the noblest cause, feeding the hungry.

We get caught up trying to keep up with the Joneses, that we lose touch with what is an asset and what is a feature on a piece of equipment. I’m still young at heart but I can remember old farming practices and old and small equipment. I can remember spreading manure on fields for fertilizer and not daring to use synthetic fertilizer. I can remember only having sows farrow twice a year. I can remember weaning pigs at eight weeks of age. I can remember shearing sheep and stuffing wool into ten foot sacks and taking the wool to Hutchinson to sell and the proceeds of the wool would pay for that ewe’ s feed for a year.

We live in a global economy these days and agriculture is smack dab in the middle of it. I am a firm believer that if you aren’t moving forward then you are falling behind, but sometimes you can look back and pick up things that will help move forward, especially today.

Today at church our pastor asked for people to stand and say what they were thankful for in this time of being thankful. The answers ranged from strength during medical trials to rekindled family units to being thankful for the situation our Lord put them in. Isn’t it something that God sees the value in us?

I’m not just talking about our souls. Our souls are priceless to him. But he sees earthly value as well. It doesn’t matter that we are only forty horsepower or that we might have a little rust on us. We have intrinsic value. Sure would be nice if we could see the value in everybody and everything.

I decided to not finish with a verse from the Holy Book. Instead, I’m going to share what I should have shared in church today. I’m thankful for many things but for my journey with Jesus I am most thankful that I have went from walking ankle deep in my faith to jumping off the diving board in the deep end. I mean I swim like a rock, but I know Jesus has got me by the hand. If you are looking to take that first step into the deep end, take it. I’ll walk with ya. I told Deb the reason I didn’t get up and say it in church was because I would have bawled like a baby. You can hide tears behind a computer screen, tears of joy.

Everyone have a blessed week.