Broken Ground Farm

Habakkuk 2:2 – And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

Proverbs 29:18 – Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Jordan Feliz – The River – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maT4phfTXR4

I can still see myself; home alone, dancing around the kitchen in worship. As I worshiped and dance and sang like no one was watching, someone was; God. He saw me and he knew my heart, desires, and plans he had for me.

I don’t remember the date or the time, but this is the moment when God began to grow the vision for Broken Ground within my heart. Our homestead was to be a ministry and a school. Not in the traditional sense of school. Not a place to come set in seats and be quiet, still, and tested. Our home was to be a place and an example of God. We were to be a home-school family with a homestead. We were to know how to work the ground, plant, grow, prosper, and share. All to the glory of God. People could come and see what we had made and learn how to apply homesteading and Godly concepts to their own lives.

Hosea 10:12 – Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

This is where Broken Ground Farm comes from. Break up the fallow ground. To plant anything, to grow anything, the ground has to be broken. This was such a spiritual parallel to me. For me, for people, to grow there has to be a breaking. I can’t have a hard heart and expect God to work and move. There has to be a beautiful, Godly breaking.

Galatians 6:7-9 – ⁷ Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. ⁸ For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ⁹ And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Yet another Biblical principle forming within this vision is reaping what I sow. As Hosea says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love;” What we plant physically is important, but we need to be sowing spiritually for ourselves and into others.

Our pastor teaches us “wheat, time, and harvest” and “if you find yourself in a bad field, start sowing yourself out of it.” I have to allow my heart ground to be Godly broken and starting moving forward one step at a time.

That is a tall order to follow. My heart says growth and abundance. My mind and eyes are seeing mess and chaos. There is a season of the unknown. Our pastor says that out reach can’t go farther than my up reach. He teaches us that in order to teach others, we must know the thing ourselves. We can’t teach what we don’t know.

So, there I was, the seed planted. No clue where to start or how to make it grow. Life passing daily and the vision just got forgotten. To me, not to God.

Over the years we would attempt a garden. Sometimes we would have a harvest and sometimes not. The house would be a mess and not clean and organized. We had kids, but struggle to maintain a good routine. How would we teach anyone?

Several years later in church our leadership pushed and asked if God have given any of us a dream. I had to remember and admit that he had. I hadn’t stewarded the vision well.

I am, at the time of penning this, a certified k-6 teacher with the state. I have held onto that degree despite my desire to not have to use it. It has been a source of pride, oddly enough. We have children now and are in the thick of homeschooling them. I can say to all the nay-sayers, “I am certified.” That doesn’t even matter. Having this degree has been a bit of a hiccup for me. I believe that at the time of my college career that I was called to teach. I love to see children learn and grow and that light that they have when what they are being taught just clicks. I love talking to and helping people. So teaching it was. I hated teaching. Cried every day hated it. I prayed and poured my heart out to God about it. He was saying, yes you will teach, but not like that. I have struggled for years with this. Regret of did I mess up my calling, did I miss lives that I was supposed to reach, did I mess up ones I did reach, what do I do now? Teach, but not in that setting. Homestead ministry when mine is a mess? How?

God sees the whole vision. And he is patient. Praise the Lord, he is patient. I get the privilege to see parts. I’ve not seen the end from the beginning as he has. This is a trust him and go day by day thing. What I may see as the completion or how could it be any better, God may see as a first step. It’s my job to trust and obey. To steward faithfully what he has given me. I will trust and obey and he will work out the details. One good seed, one good choice at a time.

This is our journey together as a family with God. Our time, such a time as this. May the Lord work in me and through me to his glory.