Testing God - Post Three

Just prior to the driveway episode, my husband, who until recently had been gainfully (and securely) employed by Claiborne Farm, had since resigned and gone back to the very un-secure vocation of training Thoroughbreds. (Look—no visible means of support! I realize that the prior reference has the under 30 crowd scratching their heads.) Jerry’s decision was fine by me, as although I crave the security of a steady paycheck, I even more crave the crazy racetrack life.

Jerry had met a man while at Claiborne that wanted him to take a string of horses. He was changing trainers, so we’d be getting some horses already in training and then be responsible for the purchase of some yearlings at the sales. The timing of this certainly fell into the category of "God thing."

The first set of horses to come from the other trainer was, to say the least, second string. We knew the trainer these horses were coming from—Jerry respected him greatly. So we knew that if these were his culls, there likely wouldn’t be much, if any, improvement that we could make. The first to arrive were a couple fillies and geldings of non-descript breeding. They had even less talent for racing. One filly had an injury that required turnout. And then there was Hamilton. A large colt with a generous amount of chrome, (that’s white, for you non-horsey types.) He was an old, old soul in a 2 year old body. A curmudgeon is what he really was, and he became my horse to rub. To say that the Hamster was beat with an ugly stick was an understatement—they used the whole tree!

I was doing my best to live down the fraidy-cat image that my husband had of me, and getting my feet wet once again with some easy-as-pie horses. And then we got the call.

Notes: We’re still praying the about pool of tithe money, but tithed 10% of Jerry’s paycheck at church on Sunday. Since I am uncertain of what rules the IRS has regarding tithing directly from a business account, I sent this question to a couple accountant types and am awaiting their answers. I am keeping track of all incoming money while I wait.

I have begun in earnest to put into play my Random Acts of Kindness plan. Since the Bible makes it clear that the good we do should be done in secret, lest we boast, I won’t refer to any specifics. But for the tracking purposes of the Test, I will give the number of RAKs accomplished in any given day. I will also make note (specifically) of blessings that I receive in return.

Please understand that the RAKs may not be huge things (or maybe some will!) but will be heartfelt gestures to brighten someone’s day. I have two good friends that I intend to pattern myself after for this project. They have both blessed so many people!

RAKs – 3

Today’s Blessings: A glorious sunny day with temps in the 50s in mid-January! And a present from our Amish neighbors—fresh smoked sausage and pork loin. This came totally out of the blue, but then the Amish always seem to be doing nice things for people. In monetary terms, this much meat will give us about 8 meals, which is at least a 10-fold return on my RAK investment!