People are always asking about the amount of work that goes into this place! Let me tell you, it’s a lot! And it never ends! Just when you get a few things checked off the list, something breaks or shows up unexpectedly and the list just continues to grow. This item on the list though, it is a thorn in the flesh! This little barn, we call the show barn, likes to hold water and the ground in the barn is awful. The animals in those particular pastures have to come in and out of the barn for shade. So every time they go in and lay down, they carry out mud with them when they leave! So over time, the ground level has dropped lower and lower. This week, while it’s so dry, husband decided to start trying to fill it back up. They had to use the tractor to load the dirt and then because of the way the barn is built, they could only dump the dirt right inside the doorway. They had to shovel the dirt from the front to the back, leveling it as they went. It was hot work, but when they were done, they had the one side filled back in and ready for the cows to come in and hopefully begin to pack it down. After some time, more will need to be added. Full disclosure: I watched, rode the tractor for company, took a few pictures, brought water bottles, and shoveled less that 10 shovel-fulls of dirt which I was told were a pitiful excuse for help!
Life gets us down in the same way sometimes. We go around every day, busy giving parts of ourselves away to those around us. Maybe you’re a mother taking care of children, the home, the husband and possibly working a job outside the home as well. You might be a father working to provide for your family and still manage to come home and help your wife and spend quality with your children. Maybe you are a self employed business owner, we know all about that, and the job never ends. Whatever you are doing every day, you are just like those cattle. Every time you leave the barn, you take a little dirt out with you and the ground gets lower. Everyday you speak to someone, encourage someone, share God’s love with someone, your ground gets a little lower. Don’t wait as long as we did to fill the dirt back in. We should be reading our Bibles and praying everyday in order to build ourselves back up. We go back to the dirt pile, the Word, and get another load to dump in the low places and fill it all back in. On occasion, God sends someone with His Word to encourage you, but sometimes we have to do that for ourselves. No one was coming to work on our ground inside that barn and it sure wasn’t going to fix itself! We had to do it! It’s just like David in 1 Samuel 30:6. David found himself really low and none of his friends or fellow soldiers came and spoke encouraging words. As a matter of fact, they thought the situation was all David’s fault and spoke out against him. But the Word says that “David encouraged himself in the Lord.” He didn’t use a self help book or some great, secular podcast. Those are all good tools but when your ground is low, we must do like David and go to the Word, spend time in prayer, and encourage and build ourselves up.
It’s getting there! 
The ground is now back up to the bottom of the barn and level!
It’s so easy, at least it is for me, to give, give, give, all day long and at the end of the day fall into bed without having even touched my Bible. Shocking truth, I know! Maybe you get it right every day, but friends I sure don’t! Today I’m looking at this pile of dirt as a reminder of what is needed. I have some low places that need to be filled in. And when I fill those in, I have more to give to others. The work never ends. Just like that barn on the farm, we will have to pay attention and continue to haul dirt in and keep the ground high so that water runs off and the ground doesn’t get as low again. You and I are that barn, we have to continually “Build ourselves up in the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,” Jude 20. Does your ground feel a little low today, or maybe a lot? Here’s a reminder to encourage yourself and build up your ground.
