Work hard! Work Smart!

 

As I look back on all the lessons I've learned in my 72 years of life, I constantly come back to the time I was growing up on our Illinois dairy farm. My father was a Christmas and Easter church attender. It wasn't until I was 36 years old that he became more ardent in his faith, after my brother was healed of cancer through anointing with oil and prayer. Though Dad didn't teach me Bible verses as a kid, he did teach me to work. And, I learned to work smart. People want to know what I look for in a potentially successful missionary? It is this: Are they willing to work hard and work smart? I would much rather take on a person who'd figured out how to innovate in some hard lessons. Like I did when I figured out that rather than peeling off two inch layers of packed cow manure with a five tine pitch fork; to chainsaw an opening into the stall and figure a way to move it with a machine. But, the first step is the willingness to spend 12 hours a day pitching it the hard way. I would take a person like that, with no formal Bible training, over someone who got straight A's in Bible school and never really worked, hard and smart. Something called diligence is one of my highest values.

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