The Grass is Always Greener

Friday was a rather eventful day for us. I don’t know what it is, but I often think we are rather prone to them! Nathanael was the only child that wasn’t in school and Calum had the day off. We decided to take him out for breakfast and enjoy the peace and quiet. He hadn’t been best pleased that his first day back at school had been a full day when his siblings only had half a day, so we promised to take him out. When we returned home, Calum spent the next few hours ‘edging’ his freshly cut grass 🙄, something he has discovered during lockdown and loves how it just gives his lawn that ‘finished’ look. Nathanael decided to strim some of the long grass that had grown along the side of the river, it would make it easier for him to take the dog down to play in the water. She was finding the heat a bit of a struggle and the river cooled her down. As we sat for a coffee break, we noticed some of the cows from the field across the river from us had escaped and were making their way up the river. Calum went across and herded them back down into their field and tried to fix the barbed wire that was keeping them in. We’ve never really seen them do that before.

After lunch the kids arrived home from school and poor Miriam had hurt her ankle getting off the school bus. It was so badly swollen I took her down to a&e to get it checked out. After an x-ray, she was relieved to hear that nothing was broken and it was just badly sprained. She hobbled her way back to the car, thankful that the fuss was all over and she was determined it would be fine for school on Monday! She has been a trooper! When we got home Calum told me that a cow had tried to get into the garden from the river, while I was at the hospital. He was so surprised and had no idea how it had managed up the steep bank behind our geese's pen. They had never gone to that part of the river before, it was really strange. He was glad that he had managed to chase it back down again fairly quickly.

Then just as dinner was nearly ready, Calum and I heard Micah shout on us from the garden. We could hear the excitement mixed with panic in his voice as he shouted ‘Mum, Dad, HELP, come quick, there is a cow in the garden AND I AM SERIOUS!!

Not again! This time however when we ran out, sure enough there was a big black and white cow running around our garden. All over Calums lovely edged grass!! Even Miriam hobbled excitedly out the door to see it. Calum quickly ran up and shut the garden gate so the cow couldn’t get up onto the main road. That hadn't even crossed my mind. It would have been so dangerous, for the poor cow and the cars driving past. We watched helplessly, as it ran around the garden, curiously checking everything out. It enjoyed some of the grass, some of my flowers and it LOVED, the section of the garden full of long grass and weeds that we have never gotten round to clearing yet. The geese however were not impressed, and they honked, hissed and flapped their wings at it, stopping it from charging into their pen. It slowed down as it approached them and decided they were definitely not worth messing with!

It was clearly agitated, running and bucking around. It could see the rest of its herd down in the river but couldn’t quite work out how to get back down to them. Thankfully I am friends with the farmer's wife and after a quick phone call, her husband was on his way down to help rescue us all, including the cow. While we waited, the cow headed back up towards us and we managed to chase it towards the path down to the river. We were both relieved when it obligingly went down the path and out of our garden. The poor farmer arrived and was pleased to find the cow had gone back into the field without any damage done. He decided to move the cows to a different field as he wasn’t convinced, by their behaviour, that they were going to be content now to stay in the field. When we went inside for dinner Calum said, “well, the grass is always greener on the other side”!

A few months ago we had the exact same issue with the geese. One morning we discovered that one of them had a really deep, nasty tear on it’s neck. It had been trying to reach grass on the other side of its pen. (Don’t worry, I’ll spare you the photo, it wasn’t very nice 🙈) We had only newly set up a pen in the garden for them and Calum had used some old wire. There must have been a little broken piece of wire and as the goose had been stretching through the squares in the wire, it had cut deep down into its neck. It was so determined to get the grass on the other side it wasn’t even aware of the damage it was doing. I had fully prepared the children that the goose would never survive this gaping hole in its neck. I was sure that the next morning, I would find it dead in it’s bed. However, it miraculously survived and now you can only tell what happened by the pattern in it’s feathers around its neck. Even then, we could see, that for the geese, the grass was always greener on the other side. After this incident we put them in a small pen that we could move around the garden, this way they could get fresh grass every few days. We hadn't fully figured out where we were going to keep them permanantly, so this would do until then. However in the mornings when I moved their pen to fresh grass, their automatic reaction was to stick their necks through the netting and reach as far on the outside of the pen as they could for the grass. They weren’t interested in the grass inside the pen, just the grass on the outside.They are just like the cow in our garden on Friday. The grass that they had been given wasn’t enough and they weren’t content until they could get to the stuff on the other side.

How often do I behave like these animals? How often do I become discontent with my life? Do I begin to look at what I have? How I look? (I am after all 40 next year!) Am I content with the current circumstances of my life? Or am I so focused on what other people have? I have to confess that sometimes it can be easy to look at other people's lives and wish that mine was a bit different.

I find social media today plays a huge part in looking at other people's lives and becoming discontent with your own. It’s awash with photographs of exotic holidays, meals out, immaculate homes and social gatherings. I remember during a low phase of my life, I used to look on facebook and it felt like everyone all had friends and had plans made with them. It used to leave me feeling so lonely and discontent with my life. One of my sons also really struggled when he was younger, comparing his life all the time to those he went to school with. He found Christmas time hard when he could see all the expensive designer gifts that kids his age received. Despite receiving all the things that he had asked for, it just left him feeling empty all the time. For a while he felt the need to compete with those around him, or keeping up with the Jones’s as we all like to say!! He would only wear a certain brand of clothing, it mattered too much what other people thought. Thankfully he has grown out of that and it doesn’t bother him in the slightest for now.

The bible speaks about contentment in 1 Timothy 6. It encourages us to be content in everything.

1 Timothy 6:6-8 “Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.”

God doesn’t want us longing for anything else. All we need can be found in Him. In Matthew chapter 10 we are told that God knows when a single sparrow falls to the ground. It says we are far more important to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

So why do we feel we need more than what God has given us? Do we think He should have provided us with a better home? More money? A holiday? The answer is no, God wants us to be content with what we have, not caught up with what we could have! Instead we are encouraged to chase after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness, 1Timothy 6:11. These are much more important things to be striving for. In gaining these things, we will bring glory to God. If I am striving for more money or a better house, who will that bring glory to? Me!

Paul, the writer of the book, warns that the love of money is the root of all evil. He doesn’t warn against having it, he warns against loving it. I’m not trying to imply that there is anything wrong with money and having money. But it's when the need for it or desire for it, causes you to become discontent with what you do have. He goes on to say that some have longed for it so much that it caused them to forget about their faith and it caused them many griefs. Being discontent can cause you to lose sight of what you do have. You no longer see the blessings or the safety that you have. Like this cow and my goose, they were so taken up with what was on the other side, they couldn’t see the dangers. If that cow had managed to get onto the road, it could have had devastating consequences. It almost cost the goose it’s life.

I think of how the farmer had to move those cows to a different field because he just knew they were no longer content to try and stay where he wanted them to be. In Psalm 55 King David longed to be in a different situation than the one he was currently facing. If you read through the Psalm it was obviously a horrendous time for him. His son Absolom had risen up against him and was trying to take the throne from him. His life was in danger. But listen to King David's advice when he wanted out of his current circumstances, he trusted God;

“Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken” Psalm 55:22

When life is hard or seems impossible, I know I can be content in my circumstances and trust God that HE WILL sustain me through them. I don’t need to fill my mind with looking for a way out or wishing for an alternative. God always has a plan, he wants me to be content and see it through.

So the next time I have that feeling of wanting what other people have, I’ll remember how stupid that cow and my goose were!!