Some wisdom from Solomon

"Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but an abundance of crops comes by the strength of the ox."

No, I haven't lost my mind. There's a point, I promise. I was reading in Proverbs, and this verse really stood out to me. (It's in chapter 14.) When we were about 16 years old, my wonderful cousin Kimberly and I worked at a farm/ day camp. One of our jobs was to clean out stalls. I can say from experience that cleaning up after farm animals is not fun. It's sweaty and smelly and dusty and just generally gross. But it's necessary. Obviously, if there were no oxen, horses, cows, etc., the stalls wouldn't need to be mucked out. Without them though, the farm cannot operate, and nothing is gained. The point being that you have to work hard and get dirty if you want results. Sometimes we must do unpleasant things in order to gain the best things.

P.S. That's actually a water buffalo in the picture...