Unpackaged Deal

I know it's wrong to have 'pet peeves', but there's something that both my husband and I have a hard time not getting really irritated at: generalization of living things (especially people). I truly don't like it when people use words like 'always' or 'never' to describe things. There's way too many variables in living creatures to categorize them. Not everything can be manufactured in China for cents on the dollar and packaged in identical boxes.

For example, when I'm looking to buy livestock, one of the first questions on an animal is what the breed is. For a dog, the options are Labrador, terrier, great dane, beagle, etc. For a goat, the options are alpine, nubian, saanen, lamancha, etc....you get the idea. Animals are bred for certain characteristics. A terrier was bred for hundreds of years for pest control of rats and such. A Lamancha goat was was developed within caprine circles that had no ears, so they got a dairy goat with no ears. People put this animal in a metaphorical box and labeled it with certain characteristics. When asking someone about a certain breed of animal, it's much like reading the nutritional information on the side of a cereal box....and only occasionally is it accurate. I'll give you examples here:

1) I have a nubian goat. People say nubians produce a lot of cream in their milk, but yield less milk than other goat breeds. In the case of my nubian, this is false. She produces just as much if not more than the others.

2) I have a miniature horse for the kids to ride. I was told miniatures need their hooves trimmed only once a year. Her hooves grow faster than the grass she eats!

3) I raise Katahdin sheep. I've been told that katahdins are very docile and easy to handle. My sheep flee from me as if I were chasing them with a bloody dagger. I won't even mention how my ram rolls his eyes and snorts like a bull (oops, I mentioned it).

4) I have a border collie for a dog. People warned me that border collies are very high energy and constantly need something to do or they become destructive. I guarantee you, his favorite hobby is sleeping.

I'll stop now, but the list could easily go on. It's actually a topic close to our hearts, because our marriage was almost doomed due to 'categorization' and 'generalization' of humans. When my husband and I got engaged, he was seeing a 'Christian' counselor. This counselor told him to break off the engagement(even though we believed God told us to get married) because people who got married in our age group had a 98% divorce rate. My husband was devastated and spent years questioning whether or not he should invest in a marriage that was likely doomed. I remember the first thing I said to him when he tried to break off the engagement: "For there to be a 98%, there's got to be a 2%!" At the time, this did little to encourage him, but it got me through some rough and lonely times.

I'm proud to say we ARE in that 2%!!!! Victory is not found in statistics and psychological research. Victory is found in thinking 'outside of the box'. Jesus came to earth and rescued the most unlikely of people from their distress and made them into disciples of Himself. An old pastor of mine said,"God seems to like using the B Team." New trends can always be set! The psalmist, David, said,"I sing to you a new song." Why do you think that is? It's because God is always doing something new! There's no such thing as ruts in the Kingdom of God. If David were to keep singing the same old songs, he'd be left behind. As it were, he understood God and kept pace with him in his praises.

If someone tries to treat you like you are a certain way and you're destined to stay that way, rebuke that curse! God made us mostly of water, and I think that's because we're supposed to remain fluid!

So, today I'm going to milk my 'unusual' goat, trim my 'unusual' horse's hooves, feed my 'unusual' sheep, and pet my 'unusual' dog. God is good!