Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 139 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Life is Like Being a Farmer

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 139 of our Trek. Yesterday we searched for 11 mile-markers to create a living legacy. Today and for the next several days, we will be digging up nuggets of wisdom that I have learned from Jim Rohn, one of my virtual mentors, and applying Wisdom-Trek logic to these nuggets that we discover. If you have any of your own observations, comments, or questions as we explore these nuggets of wisdom, please share them on the comment section of our daily journal pages.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We are heading to Marietta for the weekend to start the leaf harvest and share in our grandson Gideon’s 6^th birthday celebration, but we will head back late on Sunday since we have some commitments in Charlotte this next week. And then, we will head back to Marietta at the end of next week and celebrate Dad’s 85^th birthday.  It is a lot of traveling, but we are so thankful that we are able to do so. 

We also have a busy day on our Trek today, so let’s head onto the trail as we are in search of that hidden treasure called wisdom. This treasure is readily available, but few seek for it as if seeking for gold, silver, or precious jewels. If we desire to be joyful, we must seek for wisdom as Proverbs [3:13]-15 tells us,

Joyful is the person who finds wisdom,
the one who gains understanding.
For wisdom is more profitable than silver,
and her wages are better than gold.
Wisdom is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.

Along our trail today, we once again come across an overlook and down in the valley we see the farmers busy at the harvest.  This scene reminds me of how wise it would be if we all would think like a farmer.

Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding.

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Thinking Like a Farmer

One of the difficulties we face in our industrialized and technology driven age is the fact we’ve lost our sense of seasons. Unlike the farmer whose priorities change with the seasons, we have become impervious to the natural rhythm of life. As a result, we have our priorities out of balance. Let me illustrate what I mean:

For a farmer, springtime is his most active time. It’s then when he must work around the clock, rising before the sun and still toiling at the stroke of midnight. He must keep his equipment running at full capacity because he has but a small window of time for the planting of his crop. Eventually winter comes when there is less for him to do to keep him busy.

Every farmer knows that you can’t sow and reap on the same day. There is a timetable for your harvest that requires both working and waiting. Patience is a small price to pay for what you will receive.

There is a lesson here. Learn to use the seasons of life. Decide when to pour it on and when to ease back, when to take advantage and when to let things ride. It’s easy to keep working 10-12 hour days, year in and year out, and lose a natural sense of priorities and cycles. Don’t let one year blend into another in a seemingly endless parade of tasks and responsibilities. Keep your eye on your own seasons, lest you lose sight of value and substance.

Proverbs 23:3-5 encourages us to be careful of the continuous pursuit of wealth,

Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.
Be wise enough to know when to quit.
In the blink of an eye wealth disappears,
for it will sprout wings
and fly away like an eagle.

As we consider thinking like a farmer, we must realize that most of us will not be farming full time. So let’s continue on our trail and consider another point which is how to overcome a great challenge on our trek of life.

The Great Challenge of Life

Here’s one of the great challenges of life…You can have more than you currently have because you can become more than you currently are.

I have found that income seldom will exceed your own personal development. Once in a while income takes a lucky jump, but unless you personally grow out to where it is, it will go back to where you are. It has been predicted in studies that if you took all the money in the world and divided it among everyone equally, it would soon be back in the same pockets. Regardless of whether that is actually true, on an individual level you can have more because you can become more. You see, here is how the other side of the coin reads…Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you currently have. Creating a plan won’t work for you. It may be a good plan, but it won’t work without you. You’ve got to work it. It is the human effort that counts. The major thing that makes the difference is what YOU do.

Proverbs 21:5 teaches us to plan, but then to take action, 

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

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In order to have more, you need to become more. One person may say “If I had a good job, I would really pour it on, but I have this lousy job so I just goof off.” If that is your philosophy, you are destined to stay there. You may have said, if I had a lot of money, I would be really generous, but I don’t have much so I’m not generous.  See, you’ve got to change that philosophy, or you will never have an accumulation of wealth. Unless YOU change, your situation won’t change. Amazingly, however, when you throw out your blame list and start becoming more yourself, the difference is everything else will begin to change around you.  An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.

Thinking like a farmer and overcoming great challenges in life are two great nuggets of wisdom to consume for today, but come along with us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy. Tomorrow we will search for more of these precious nuggets that are more valuable than gold.

That will finish our podcast for today. Remember to listen to your daily dose of wisdom on Wisdom-Trek.com, or subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spreaker, or YouTube so the episodes will be downloaded to you automatically each day. Please share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.

The journal for today’s Trek can be found at Wisdom-Trek.com. Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day. 

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!