Growing up, my very best friend’s family owned a dairy farm. I loved spending time with her, but the cow part of her world was always daunting to me. As much as I was around the dairy with her, I never did grow into a lover of the large animal breed. I watched her get kicked and saw the resulting bruises on her legs too many times! Now maybe, on a rare occasion, you might find me helping bottle feed the baby calves, but even those feedings were few and far between. A barn full of cows was not where I desired to hang out!

My lack of love for the larger animal breed definitely carried on into the adult years of my life. I don’t mind watching them from afar and I love seeing the baby calves running through a field, but any up close and personal interactions continue to be met with my resistance. The memories of the cows on that dairy farm are still very vivid in my mind!

It never should surprise us when God decides to speak and so often with me, He will use a picture to get His point across. Knowing how I still view the larger animal breeds, truly shows the highland cow story is one that can be attributed to “Only God”.

As Hope is Rising began to take form, there were so many decisions that needed to be made. Michelle and I were committed to prayer through all of the decisions, but patience is not a virtue that comes easily for me. There were times, over the months prior to our launch, that we prayed and prayed and yet, the answers weren’t coming as quickly as I thought they should. There was a particular day that I was frustrated with the unknowns and tired of having to wait for answers. Honestly, I was ready to just make the decision and hopefully it would be the right one! In my mind, if the decision wasn’t right, I would just deal with the consequences later. Thankfully, the Lord stepped in and He gave me the “picture” I needed.

As I stood in my office, I was reminded of the cow patties around my friend’s dairy farm. It was always a challenge to step around those piles, but we did everything we could to keep from stepping in the middle of the mess. It definitely took a concentrated effort to make it out of the barn without cow poo on our shoes!

As I saw that picture in my mind, the Lord spoke very clearly to my heart… “If you choose to walk these decisions out, without waiting to hear from Me and without heeding My guidance, you will end up stepping into a mess.” As His words played through my mind, I looked down at my bare feet. It was these feet that had the potential of having symbolic “cow poo” between my toes, IF I chose to step without waiting for the Lord’s direction. In that moment, the cow had a different significance in my world. Rather than this large breed of animal being something I steered away from, it became a sweet reminder of the importance of my waiting to hear God’s voice and only stepping when and where He directs me to!

I discovered a picture of the Highland Cow not long after and instantly, this animal became a visual reminder of how the Lord wants me to walk out the decisions we make with Hope is Rising. I never dreamed a cow could make such a difference in my life~