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Psalm 34:1 says, "I will bless the Lord at all times." That "all times" really gets me. How do you bless the Lord when it is dark, and you are walking your property and mooing, in hopes of wooing back an ornery steer, who has knocked down and jumped the fence to escape---again?! It may sound trivial, but that was my situation several days ago. And the steer is a repeat offender! I do have a theory that his criminal behavior began in response to the sudden disappearance of his lamb buddy after fair time, but I am digressing

The evening was not a total loss, however, because after I had exhausted my mooing capabilities, I glanced at the night sky on my way from the empty pen to the house. All those stars ( and a few airplanes) against the black sky never cease to amaze me. I was reminded in an instant of the mighty and wonderful God that is mine. The Lord brought to my mind, that if He could hang all those stars in space and keep them in place, surely He could help me in my dealings with my runaway bovine. I thought of Noah, and that became my prayer- " Lord, please bring Beefy back to the pen (or at least the property) just like You brought those animals to Noah." You will notice in Genesis chapter 7, particularly verse 7-9, that Noah and his family went into the ark, and then "Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female as God had commanded Noah. To me that says that Noah and his family went into the ark and the lord sent the animals in to him without any effort on his part. The whole family was enlisted to pray for the return of Beefy.

The next morning, I was up early and hanging clothes when I figured I would just try a few moos before I went into a full scale search for the missing creature. I found the words of Psalm 34 to be true again. Verse 4- "I sought the Lord and He answered me." Verse 6- "This poor man (or woman, in this case) cried and the Lord heard him." For, as I was collecting some feed in a bucket, I heard Beefy's return moo in the distance. My boys yelled that Beefy had come to the clothes line, where I had been earlier in the morning. God sure is good. We got the steer back to his pen, band-aided the fence, and are hoping he will stay in it through about 2 more sacks of corn.

The point of this is that God hears the prayers of his children. He wants to help us. He is concerned about our little daily stresses and strains, and if we acknowledge that He is the one who can help us through it all, he does. Now, He could have worked out the problem in a totally different way, or in any number of different scenarios, but He chose to answer my simple call for help in a simple way. He will do the same for you. He loves you and wants to be part of every detail of your life- even wayward cattle!!