We love our chickens. We have had 3 sets of chicks and to look at all these pictures you would think “oh happy chicken farmers.” Well that may be the case now but it did not start out that way. Jonathans favorite food is eggs. LOVES eggs. When Scotty was 3 and told us he didn’t like eggs Jonathan said “that is going to be a problem because in this house we will be eating lots of eggs.” So it makes PERFECT sense that about 5 years ago, for a surprise birthday present the kids and I went and picked out some baby chicks! I figured when Jonathan got this wonderful thoughtful gift he would be thrilled to build a coop and get them set up, after all, the chicks live in a box for 2 months so we had plenty of time.
We got up early on his birthday to give him his present(s) and…… he was not thrilled. He left for work an hour early that day. The kids were crying (do we have to take them back?? I already named mine!) and I was mad because he was mad. Although ok, I could see his point, we did already have a lot going on, 5 kids- two with Special Needs, and a busy life. But come on! EGGS! (Never mind that it would be 8 months before they actually started laying.) Before he left he said, “Don’t get attached to these chickens, when I get home, we’re taking them back.” (more kids crying)
So what is the point of this post? Well this week I started teaching Sunday School at my church and I was reminded that we all came from somewhere. We all are spirit children of God and even before we were born we developed certain characteristics, abilities, aspects of our personalities. Have you ever heard “they were just born that way”? Well I think in a lot of ways we are. So I asked everyone in the class to think about a “divine quality” that they think their spouse has. And when I thought about Jonathan the first thing that came to my mind was forgiving. I cant think of a better word. This guy does not hold a grudge, he does not stay mad, he finds a way to just get over things. He is so forgiving of anyone and everyone. I think that is a divine quality, one I have to work on because I did NOT come that way. And it reminded me of “what happened when we surprised him with chicks.” Now let me be clear- I did not think that I needed forgiving for buying those chicks, but the definition of the word forgiving includes “lenient, humane, compassionate, soft hearted, tolerant” so it all fits. He came home, said we should keep the chickens and while we were at it, get a couple more. (LOVE HIM!) I am officially married to a full blown chicken wrangler. (Here are some pics of the coop, he just built it into the play structure, we let them out into a chicken run during the day, you can see Ty checking for eggs.)
