The Chicken Massacre
This spring we started out with 8 chicks. We raised them in the house, inside a Rubbermaid tub and dealt with the smell, the mess, and the constant chirping. After about a month and once the weather warmed up a bit, we moved them to the chicken coop. Days, weeks, and months passed by, then finally! The magical day arrived when we discovered one little egg in the nesting box. From then on we were getting 5-7 eggs per day. . . For about two weeks.
Now I want to defend myself a little here. I had started to let the full grown chickens outside of their run everyday while I stayed outside with the kids. I kept a close eye on them, saw how the dogs reacted to them and all seemed peaceful. I’m sure you know where this is headed now. Well, I was too confident. After about a week of letting the chickens have a taste of freedom I left them outside their run while I put Roy and Hank down for a nap. . . An hour maybe two had passed when I realized what I had done.
The Massacre
I rush outside to find feathers. Feathers everywhere. I see one dog eating one of our chickens. I don’t think I have ever been so angry in my life. I throw the dogs inside (literally throw them) then run to peek inside the chicken coop. I only see one chicken on the roost. Oh my goodness, we had eight chickens an hour ago! Where the heck did they go?!
I scoured the yard and found two huddled behind the BBQ and herded them back into the coop. Okay, okay there are three chickens now, that’s good! Right?! I find three more that had died, but we were still missing two. Eventually I found their feathers and what was left of them. Ah! I didn’t know whether to cry, yell, laugh at my stupidity, or do nothing! I think the worst part was all that hard work of raising them was about to pay off with delicious eggs when the dogs had a different plan.
Our Good Fortune
I was still disheartened about a week later when I went to our local Big R to pick up pig food. When I walk into Big R, there was the faintest sound of ‘cheeping.’ I could not believe my eyes! Big R had received an order of baby chicks!! I am a little embarrassed at how excited I was to see those little ladies pecking around the troughs they were huddled in. I called up Harrison to tell him of our good fortune and came home with 10 chicks.
We now have 13 chickens that I have become pretty protective of. The dogs are still alive and doing well, in case you were wondering. We have figured out the dynamics of having predators and prey live in the same backyard and hopefully get many eggs from here on out.
Lesson Learned
Now I can’t help but think of how easily this applies to our lives. Do we ever get comfortable with our relationship with God? Do we ever get comfortable being around temptations day after day? When I let my guard down, and trusted the dogs to leave the chickens alone, that was the precise moment they struck.
Satan is patient. He will watch us like those dogs watched those chickens, day after day. Satan is always in the background, but guess what? So is our Heavenly Father! Which means it is up to us. Are we going to structure our day in a way where we hang out with Satan or our Father in Heaven? It is not possible to coast down the middle and just ‘be with ourselves.’ Are our influences in our life, from social media to real relationships, keeping us closer or further away from God?
In 3rd Nephi 18:15 it says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always, lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive by him.”
The moment we get comfortable with our praying or scripture study or lack thereof, is the moment Satan knows we are at our weakest. That is the moment when we turn our back on the ‘predator’ and hope everything will be alright. Hoping that, “oh I’m just going to the bar, I won’t have a drink,” or, “We are just friends, my wife doesn’t need to know,” or how about, “I don’t need to read the scriptures tonight, my testimony is just fine.” I hope we never rely on hope. Hope is not a strategy, in fact it is lazy. Do your part to be closer to God so that you are ready to face whatever temptation/predator comes your way. We cannot go through our lives hoping we will make the right decision. We need to make the right and usually harder decision now so we are strong enough later to keep choosing the right.
