Crazy cow shows up … at church

I’ve been banned from doing many things … and painting is one of those. 

As new Bible College graduates, I was helping my husband paint a bookshelf in his new office. It was brown. At that church, I had to wear a skirt while painting. I ended up stepping into the paint can, and brown paint splashed all up inside my skirt and ruined my white slip. 

That’s just one example, but I don’t have the space to share more.  Anyway … some of our ladies and our new family pastor’s wife wanted to have a paint party. Well, I’ve never in my life scheduled a paint party — and now you know why! Even painting on canvas is dangerous to me and the idea isn’t fun at all.

It drives me crazy when a “real” artist makes the statement, “Oh, you will love it. It’s so much fun.” Well, now I know my friends tell lies  … sort of. Actually the paint party was fun. I am just not good at it. But I’m trying to learn the lesson that “life is not all about me,” it’s about others!  

So I signed up and tried. We had a cow with flowers in her hair traced on our canvas. We had several choices. We could make her a traditional brown cow, or we could make her with blues and purples. So of course, I picked the crazy cow colors of blues and purples. 

My own mother said my cow represented my crazy life. My crazy cow looks more like a buffalo wearing flowers than a cow. And it had one horn.

To me, a cow is a girl, and if “it” has horns it’s a boy cow. Now you know why I love agriculture week — because I’m an EXPERT with farm animals! NOT!

Anyway, in honor of agriculture week, I thought I’d share another ag story. When we lived out in the country, I saw one of the neighbor’s cows giving birth right in the field outside my bathroom window. But the baby calf was just hanging there  … like he needed help. So I ran down to the neighbor’s house and told him. Of course, by the time we got back to the mamma cow, the calf had come right on out and everything was fine. Well, the neighbor and I have laughed about that for years. He knows my expertise is always available to him during calving season — if an emergency arises.

It’s funny how I loved being at my grandparent’s farm in Mansfield, Missouri when I was a little girl. I loved the smell of hay in the barn and playing with the barn cats while climbing on the hay. It was really fun to get in Pa’s old truck and “go to town” with him. One year he decided his Texas granddaughters needed red cowboy hats. We were so proud of those hats. We would also go to the grocery store and pick up things for Gram, and the feed store, too.

Last week, I followed the leadership classes for AG day. When we stepped into the back of Quality Feeds, I was hit with a nostalgic smell that immediately took me back to my childhood (a long time ago) and being at the feed store with Pa.

Pa used to tease my sister and I about being “city girls.” But we loved driving the tractor, gathering the eggs and climbing on the wooden side rails in the back of Pa’s pickup.

Even with all of these wonderful memories — I am not a farm expert. God did not give me the gift of farming or painting. 

But you should have felt the ‘sunshine in my soul’ on the next Sunday morning (after the Saturday paint party) as I played the piano with so much love and joy for my Savior and gratefulness for the ability to play. I told myself, “This is something you CAN do!” 

It’s good to know your strengths and talents come from God. Are you putting yours to good use to tell people about Jesus and grow your church congregation? I also believe we are responsible for improving those gifts and talents. Yes, I’ll attend the next paint party —  if for no other reason than to make people laugh! Want to see my buffalo/crazy cow?