{"id":430,"date":"2024-01-20T15:38:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T21:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/?p=430"},"modified":"2024-01-20T15:38:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T21:38:07","slug":"keep-it-between-the-ditches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/?p=430","title":{"rendered":"Keep It Between the Ditches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Ben Collins<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Growing up on a farm, I learned to drive early. If it had wheels and a motor, it was fair game. Lawn mowers, tractors, equipment, it didn\u2019t matter. I may or may not have even learned to hotwire a thing or two when folks figured out leaving keys in the ignition was a bad idea. It was a \u201cburden\u201d that came with being a country kid. I mean, think about it, what could go wrong in the wide-open wilderness? Well…history and more than a few bumpers and fence post might hold the answer to that question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the perks of this terrible <\/em>burden I carried was that sometimes I got to drive on the road.  There I was barely able to shift gears in our old column shift Ford while simultaneously trying to see out of the cracked windshield. The only rule was, \u201cKeep it between the ditches.\u201d Now if that isn\u2019t a rule for country boys, I don\u2019t know what is. That was my dad\u2019s way of telling me follow the cleanest path. It is there for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of Rachel, wife of Jacob, from the Book of Genesis is a great example of how a simple country-boy rule should apply to us all. Jacob loved Rachel. Yet, Rachel wasn\u2019t satisfied with that road. She kept looking off the road for a faster, more bountiful road. She stole, manipulated, cajoled, and basically wasn\u2019t a nice person at different times of her life. If you read her story with a modern lens, you would say she \u201cwanted hers\u201d and was willing to do whatever it took to get it. My dad would say, she didn\u2019t keep it between the ditches. We are told that Jacob, her loving husband, buried her beside the road. The irony that her resting place was in the ditch, if you will, while Jacob was buried with the woman he didn\u2019t initially want, or love shouldn\u2019t be lost on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are given some roads while others we choose. Some roads are rougher than others. Some roads are more scenic than others. Some roads lead to work while some roads lead to rest. Some roads lead to riches while some roads lead to ruin. Sometimes we listen to the GPS and sometimes we think we know a shortcut. Regardless of the road you find yourself on during this season of life, I hope you, \u201cKeep it between the ditches.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up on a farm, I learned to drive early. If it had wheels and a motor, it was fair game. Lawn mowers, tractors, equipment, it didn\u2019t matter. I may or may not have even learned to hotwire a thing or two when folks figured out leaving keys in the ignition was a bad idea. It was a \u201cburden\u201d that came with being a country kid. I mean, think about it, what could go wrong in the wide-open wilderness? Well…history…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}