Joy: In God's Will

Now that I've shared about my change in career paths, I'll share with you what has been going on in the time since then!

In September I changed my major to General Agriculture.  I felt that God was leading me there, and everything made sense and fit into place!  I can see now part of what God was doing. (I don't dare even think that I know everything God was doing.. remember.. this is GOD we're talking about.  Omnipotent, omnipresent.. yeah, you get the picture..)  One of the general requirements for Gen Ag is that you take Animal Science 121, which is just Introduction to Animal Science.

I don't think I can comprehend how much I have truly enjoyed this class!  The lectures are so full of information, and the lab.  Oh the labs!  Practical, hands on experience with everything we cover in class!  Because of my time spent in 4-H/FFA growing up, as well as just living in a small ranching community, and my time spent devouring books over the course of my life, I can definitely say that I went into ANS121 with a basic, broad knowledge of most of the livestock species we were going to talk about.

Let me tell you that I have enjoyed every. single. lab.

Going into class, I knew that swine was not my favorite subject.  My siblings raised pigs in 4-H, and one of my best childhood friends had a pig farm... They're just not my favorite!   The pig lab (which just means we went to the pig facility owned by University during lab) took place after God spoke to me about my new path in life.  It just amazes me how He orchestrates every single little detail!  I drove to lab with a knot in my stomach.  I was sure that I wouldn't enjoy it, and that it would be the only lab to date that I didn't like.

The Lord's ways are not the ways of man.  To that I say hallelujah!  At the beginning of every lab, we spend about 30 minutes with business stuff: taking roll, going over terminology, filling out lab books, identifying tools, etc.  It amazed me how much of the information I actually knew, and how many questions I was able to answer.  Finally moving into the first facility, (Coincidence that it was the sows that had new litters?  Good thing I don't believe in coincidences!) I smiled and watched the little piglets nurse and sleep.  When we finally got to the pigs that will be sold as 4-H animals this spring, I was actually having a pretty good time!  My TAs like to do 'activities' in every lab.  The activity for this lab? Pig herding..  :)

Overall, I want to share with you the absolute joy I felt coming out of the lab!  I know that it was a joy that came from the Lord.  He opened my eyes to see that all are His creation. 

Once again, it amazes me how our Awesome God uses the instances we least expect to bring us closer to Him!