The Simple Life

Our Sunday School teacher read a verse from the Bible yesterday that really struck a chord with me: “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands… Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.” 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12 (NLT)

I think this verse captures the essence of living a simple life. But our lives are far from simple. We live in a fixer-upper house, we have started a farm, Brett has a full time job off the farm, and we have a son in college and one in high school. We have enough farm and house projects to keep us busy for a very long time.

Operating a profitable farm requires more than just building fences and taking care of the livestock. It also requires recordkeeping, financial projections, product development, research on animal care, market research, advertising and marketing, networking, attending conferences and shows, educating potential buyers, etc, etc…

Despite all that, I think the simple life is worth striving for. We are in a busy season of our lives right now but I envision a day when we transition from building our farm to running our farm. A day when we will still be busy but there will be more order. A day when life will be simpler.