Nothing Is Wasted

Where One Farmer’s Wife Places Her Hope

A farmer’s wife.  I really had no idea what that entailed when I met my farmer.  I knew risks were involved since there is heavy machinery, however nothing could prepare me for the journey I’ve been on the last year.  On October 6, 2018, I received a phone call that changed my life in an instant.  My husband had fell 15 feet from the top of a semi-trailer while harvesting peanuts.  He was severely banged up; his eye was black and swollen shut and he was unable to move the entire right side of his body.  At that moment, I had no idea what we were facing. 

He had shattered his wrist, was left without a rotator cuff in his shoulder, eye issues, broken tooth, and amnesia with memory loss.  These words left holes in my heart and I didn’t know what the future held in our store for our family not to mention our farm.  My husband endured four surgeries, two of which were failed and has one more surgery to go.  In the midst of walking this journey, I was dealing with my own health issues and ended up having a prophylactic double mastectomy just two weeks before his third surgery.  Though the road we faced was most difficult, we felt God’s mercy and grace upon us in so many ways.  People near and far blessed us in ways we could only dream about.  They took care of us when we had nothing left.  Our friends and family showed us the love of Christ. 

Our oldest son took care of everything on the farm in my husbands’ absence.  It was extremely challenging considering he didn’t work for about a year.  Having Hurricane Michael hit our cotton crop for the third year in a row was devastating but it could have been much worse.  Sometimes God’s plan is so much larger than what we can physically see. 

If you take away one thing from this post, remember that God wastes nothing!  He uses every single hard thing we face for His glory.  During this past year, we’ve wondered why, what could God be doing.  Some things we’ve seen, some things we may never see this side of heaven.  But we know each thing is used.  He has used our situation and the way we have handled it to help others over and over again.  Sometimes He brings us to absolutely nothing so He can do His best work.  We must decrease so He can increase. 

A picture is worth a thousand words so I will leave you with this.  We were originally told he would never be able to raise his arm again.  Our God is so faithful and mighty!