I stood alongside the side of the show ring this week while my daughters exhibited sheep at the State Fair. I reflected on the time and hard work spent getting to this point. Washing, walking, feeding, and cleaning pens are just part of our daily routine to raise a sheep project for the show. A good portion of our summer is invested in working lambs on a daily basis. We choose to say no to many other opportunities in order to fully invest our time and resources into working with the show animals. Preparation is key. They must be fed properly, water buckets scrubbed out, leg hair conditioned, washed, and blown dry.

Training your sheep to walk with a halter and then later without a halter is a commitment in itself.

As we prepared to show at the State Fair, I read a short interview with the judge who would be sorting through the kids for showmanship. This is a contest in the ring where kids are judged on how they present their animal and maintain eye contact with the judge, all while staying calm, cool, and collected. The judge stated that the work should have already been done ahead of time. Once kids and their sheep enter the ring, their eyes should stay focused on the animal and the judge, not looking around the outside to parents for help.

The time and hard work that was invested all summer is what you take into the ring with you. Once you step a foot and a hoof into the show arena, you leave all of the coaching behind. As soon as you arrive at the fair, it is too late to try to begin the routine of care and work for your livestock project. I shared with my daughters what the judge had said in her interview ahead of time, reminding them to keep their eyes inside the ring. Staying focused on the personal relationship they had built with their sheep was the game plan.

The lamb of God wants each one of us to invest our time and resources into furthering His kingdom here on earth in the same way. There will come a day when we step into the ultimate show ring before our Heavenly Father. The opportunity to build a personal relationship with God will stop. The sand will all be at the bottom of the hour glass, time will be up. The hard work of living for Christ, making sacrifices and investing time in prayer is to be done now.

We are never promised tomorrow, put in the effort and make a commitment. In the blink of an eye, the chance to live for Christ will be over. Just like raising a show animal where preparation is necessary, preparing to meet your Lord and Savior is the most valuable relationship you can invest in. When you step into His presence and meet Jesus face to face, you will not be able to look around to others for help. God is the one and only way to eternal life. Are you looking around for someone else to do the work for you or are you looking to the Lamb of God and staying focused on the prize that He has set before you?

Keep your eyes in the ring. Stay absorbed on your eternity, it is permanent, your daily routine is just a temporary show. 

“Stay focused; listen to the wisdom I have gained; give attention to what I have learned about life So you may be able to make sensible judgments and speak with knowledge.”

Proverbs 5: 1-2 

Contact Ashley at ashley@tippgazette.com

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Tippecanoe Gazette

Attn: Ashley Spring McCarroll

PO Box 84

Tipp City, Ohio 45371