Rancher’s Prayer - November ‘25

Lord, 

I somehow come to you for the third year in a row looking good prices straight in the eye. This time I speak to you holding a sense of confidence that those prices will remain fair, at least for a little while longer.

However, I feel the end coming soon and happen to find myself, instead, looking well beyond only a day or two unlike years before. I should be elated for the upcoming auction but instead agonize upon the tough times soon to arrive.

A certain word has somehow wormed its way into my noggin over this past year. I have tried to shake it, but it keeps coming back for some reason. Because of that I, in some way, think it fits appropriately maybe not for this fall, but likely the next.

It is short and simple: Resolve.

It is an expression that seems not to earn the use that it should. Or maybe it does, and that is rather a reflection upon our current societal state than it is on anything else. Regardless, I come to you seeking just that—resolve.

Not for tonight. Not for tomorrow. Not even for the coming weeks. Instead, I ask you to bless us with the utmost resolution you can bestow for the coming years. More importantly, for the coming generation.

The boys have started to shoulder their own weights with this place; with the life we love. But this season especially, I find myself looking into the beautiful bright eyes of the next generation. He will be the next to take all this on, if he one day chooses.

I ask you to bless us with resolve for the coming decade of cyclically low prices. I ask for it especially when years are sparse in moisture, short on grass, and lean on cattle. I ask you to bless us with the best you have to offer so we can push through and see another year or two with prices just like this.

Most of all, I ask you to bless that baby I see nappin’ in his grandma’s arms. Give him the resolve we have worked to earn. Bestow him with the integrity to push through no matter the hardships. Please use us all as examples for him to follow.

That is what I ask for this year.

Resolve.

Short. Hard. Well earned. Ever needed—no matter the time.

Send every drop of it our way, if you can.

In your name...Amen.