The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast is dedicated to supporting and empowering farmers by recognizing that their greatest assets are the knowledge, experience, mind and health. Hosted by husband-and-wife duo Jesse and Dr. Leah, this podcast combines their unique backgrounds to provide valuable insights. Together, they explore topics that help farmers thrive both personally and professionally. Tune in for a blend of practical advice, real conversations, while having a little fun along the way as they talk about all thing's agriculture and family.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
Faith, Family, and Farming: How One Farmer Built a Multi-Generational Operation
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We welcome Steve Boender, a farmer from Oskaloosa who shares his remarkable journey of faith, family, and farming over 50 years. Steve reveals how he and his wife Jan started with nothing but an FHA loan at ages 18 and 19, building a diverse agricultural enterprise while raising six children who've all returned to agriculture in various capacities.
• Started farming in 1974 with 200 acres and an FHA loan at age 18
• Found resilience through faith during the 1980s farm crisis when banks refused loans
• Created independent business opportunities for each child rather than just positions in the family operation
• Diversified beyond traditional farming into seed sales, custom work, trucking, and excavation
• Measures success not by how necessary he is to the operation but by how well it runs in his absence
• Built a reputation for servant leadership that extends throughout the agricultural community
• Believes in the principle that "when you shovel out, God shovels back—and God has a bigger shovel"
• Views his responsibility as not just teaching his children but teaching them to teach their children
• Values relationships over self-sufficiency, recognizing the importance of both giving and receiving help
Join us next week for more wisdom from Steve as we continue exploring what truly makes the farmer agriculture's greatest asset.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer their knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.
Speaker 2And I'm Dr Leah.
Speaker 1Today I get to introduce someone who has had a huge impact on me and my journey of faith and growing as a human being. Leah and I met this amazing couple while on a Beck's vacation in Grand Cayman, and I truly believe God will put people in your path for a reason, and Steve and Jan are two of those people. So welcome, steve Boonder. Steve, you are from Oskaloosa, which is about an hour and a half from us, correct, and I think you just celebrated an anniversary.
Speaker 3Yes, we did. Thank you, Jesse and.
Speaker 2Leah, happy anniversary, yeah, happy anniversary.
Speaker 1Thank you, thank you for coming down. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3So tell us just a little bit about, I guess, what you do in Oskaloosa and who you are, jan, and I farm, we have six married children and a whole bunch of grandkids and we're in the custom work, business, business-wise, and we just live southwest of Oskaloosa about three miles, very good, so you do some custom about three miles.
Speaker 1Very good so you do some custom farming for other customers? We do. Yep, you have a seed dealership business right?
Speaker 3Yes, In fact, with as many of the kids involved and now starting to be grandkids involved in the farm, we are diversifying, with crop production being kind of on a three-year decline and you have to kind of diversify, and so we have a seed business, some trucking, some dirt work and and all of the above to keep everyone busy it does keep you busy, I am sure of it.
Speaker 2Yeah, so, steve, you celebrated your 50th anniversary. Congratulations, that is amazing.
Speaker 3Thank you.
Speaker 2How did you and Jan get your start? How did it all come together? Tell us a little bit of your backstory.
Speaker 3Well, first of all, celebrating one's 50th anniversary sounds ancient, I mean like really old. So I tell people we got married in junior high, really old. So I tell people we got married in junior high. It wasn't quite that young, but I was 18 and Jan was 19 when we got married. I was the oldest of six children and Jan was the middle of three. I had made four goals in seventh grade and achieved three of them, and the three I achieved was that I would farm and that I would find a gal for a spouse that loved to farm as much as I did, and that by the time we were 25, we would have purchased some land. And so the only difference was Jan grew up on green tractors and I grew up on red ones.
Speaker 1She grew up on the good ones.
Speaker 3So we now have red and yellow, black and white.
Speaker 1We have them, all we have them all.
Speaker 3Yeah, I was hired man as a freshman in high school and that family rented me the farm 200 acres my senior year as a senior in high school. And so I started out with an FHA loan because I had no collateral and I had wonderful, wonderful parents, but they did not have the financial ability to help me get started. So Jan and I started with a FHA loan On 200 acres. On 200 acres what year was that? I started farming? In 74, and we got married in 75, and moved to our current location where we live now, in December of 76.
Speaker 2Wow.
Speaker 1So farming in 74 probably wasn't too bad right.
Speaker 3No $3 corn. Not much has changed.
Speaker 1Right, a lot has changed, it's just true.
Starting From Scratch in Farming
Speaker 3But no, we had hogs back then and, uh, we raised hogs and for ourselves. Uh, I was never considered myself an excellent hogman but uh, and then about early to mid 90s, we started custom feeding hogs for others and, uh, have a son that continues to do that, have a couple hog sheds and custom finishes for JBS, and so, yeah, things were different. Had a gentleman, a manager of a farm service company, came the first year we were married and asked if we would consider spraying for a family that back in them days they used pickups with 500-gallon tanks on the back and you drove through the pick.
Speaker 1We had one.
Speaker 3I remember those days, field pickup and it was tough and we ended up being excellent friends with that family of those two brothers and then we ended up renting their farm later, as God works things out, and that continues to be the the way of it. Some in the custom work business, as you build relationships which is what farming is all about you talk about the farmer's greatest asset. Is the farmer part of that asset? Is the relationship part of it? And? And so as people get older or or do something else, and and uh, as you build a relationship and we've never had to ask for ground that that has always just come out of a sense of relationship, whether we do custom work for them or friends with them well, and I can remember a story that you told us a couple years ago and that somebody saw your logo and it says Faith on there.
Speaker 1That's right and that plays a huge role for all of us, but especially you.
Speaker 3A more recent story of that was a gentleman called me one Monday before Thanksgiving and just a year or two ago and said I would like to stop and talk to you and I said well, why don't we come after Thanksgiving? Well, lo and behold, I just had a nudge and I'm like you know, we don't really have to wait till after Thanksgiving. So I called him and I said would you like to come sooner? He said yeah, I'd like to come right now. And so a boy or two and myself met him in the office and he said I don't know how to tell you this, but he says I'm going to prison and I'd like to have you plant my 2,200 acres. And so we ended up with a really neat family relationship.
Speaker 3Out of that Just became wonderful friends. He served his discipline, friends, he served his discipline, and him and his wife and four children are assets in society. But I said to him I said we've never met. Why did you pick us? And he said I saw your trucks down at Cargill and they had faith and family on your logo. And I think you know as I think about your and Leah's process of getting into the farmer's greatest asset and and also your beef and selling on meat online and stuff like that. I think a business needs a logo that has a story, and then I think we need a platform that tells that story, and I think this is what you guys are doing we are trying.
Speaker 1I mean we, we really just want to help people and we don't want to preach, but our faith is huge for us yes and we just want to show that and we want it to come through so in that, steve, how has farming deepened your faith?
Speaker 3Oh, my, that's a lifelong answer, but I'll shorten it up.
Speaker 2You don't have to shorten it up. You can give us the long version we love your stories, steve, you can share them with us.
Speaker 3So we got married in 75, 76. The farming crisis started coming around 79. So we didn't have a lot of padding, if you want to call it that, and so Jan ended up in 1986. Jan got sick with a back issue. We had four kids at the time.
Speaker 3Four of our six children and my father and my uncle had both had to file bankruptcy in the 80s and I went into the bank and they'd been dragging their feet and the bank said we really don't think we're going to extend you money for a crop. He said you have the wrong last name. And so one night I put the kids to bed and I loaded the dishwasher and I made sure Jan was as comfortable as she could be and I went out to Mohe and I hadn't done first cutting yet. And it was well into June and we were behind. We had 100 acres of cash crop that we sold small square bales to Missouri and uh, the mower wouldn't work. It was plugging on the dew and stuff like that. And uh, so finally I just made I was going to make sure by gummies, a farmer and a hard worker, we were going to make it work, you know.
Faith Journey Through Farming Challenges
Speaker 3And I finally had to get off the tractor and get beside the tractor tire and get on my knees and tell God I needed, ask God if I could have some help, and that was probably a change. I wouldn't say I wasn't, I didn't have a faith before that, but I definitely. God used that time to build my character and he's been helping me ever since. It was a slow recovery and so I had to learn a dependence on God and I've always thought that God put me on this earth to serve, to serve him, obviously, but that's only the first half of love the Lord, your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. So we also have instructions to serve others and so I have tried through my farming, through family, to be as helpful and sharing and generous as God allows, and Jan is a wonderful helpmate with that.
Speaker 1Well, when we met you in Grand Cayman, we got into some pretty good discussions on the porch, over coffee we did. You are not afraid to put your faith out there, to put yourself out there, and it is very apparent that you live a servant life and you're not afraid to show it.
Speaker 2Thank you for that, because by being an example, then other people know a path to follow. It may not be the exact path that they follow, but having an example and having more examples out there is a tremendous thing that you can do that alone, serving others, because through serving others we really serve God.
Speaker 3Yep, and we are, and we're God's hands and feet in that, and we believe that it's only by the grace of God that we are a good influence, because we're inclined to do bad things. Well, as long as we're on earth, that's going to continue to happen. You know, and we're all human, we'll be, we can be prideful, we can be, but there's a, there's a piece about not only a piece about helping others, but there's also a piece about no matter what comes, and you can take that politically, you can take that economically, you can take that politically, you can take that economically. We've had a change in politics, and whether it was whoever thinks times were bad and now good, or times were good and now bad, we have this okayness that God is in charge, and not only of the big picture, but of you and I, and we play a part. You know history, that's his story, and so he has a purpose for us in history.
Speaker 2Well, right now is definitely an exciting time to be alive. You know there is so much changing in the world.
Speaker 3There is.
Speaker 2And it's really an amazing time to see what is coming and and having the presence of faith, to be like no matter what comes, it's all going to be okay In the end.
Speaker 3well, God provides, and you know, this could be a whole different subject and maybe can be someday. But we start with each other and our spouses. First we love the Lord and we start with our spouses, Then we, then we have our children and we have a responsibility. That's one. But then, as you get my age, you start to see grandchildren and I hate to admit that I'm a great-grandfather but, I love my great-granddaughter. So I have sorry to interrupt. No, go ahead, Go for it.
Speaker 1I always say that your biggest and best job in life is raising children. What is it like having grandchildren and great-grandchildren?
Speaker 3I'll take that one step further. We don't just have a responsibility to instruct and teach our children. We have a responsibility to instruct and teach our children, to teach their children. And so it's not just, and so it's not just. Oh well, my job is finished, you know, and you get second chances. I'm not always saying I did things right as a father or a husband, but as a grandfather, like I said, I was thinking about getting into it. It's not about make it use it, lose it or make things happen, Watch things happen, Wonder what happened.
Speaker 3I'm talking about first, first, second, third generation. You know, it's like where have we been, when are we at, when are we headed?
Speaker 2And you want to teach your kids Henry and I forget the girls' names- to make things happen not just to watch you, and so that just gets into giving responsibility, starting really young and all kinds of good things like that. They're getting through that, aren't they, jesse, the kids Getting through it? Yeah, we are growing through it. We're growing through that, aren't they, jesse, the kids Getting through it? We are growing through it. We're growing through it, going, growing.
Speaker 1We've been saying that a lot lately. We're growing through it.
Speaker 2Well, and I think it's our personal evolution, that is a great example, right? I tell the kids all the time like I'm not. This is the first time I've done this Like I'm not doing a good job.
Speaker 1All of the time You're the first time I've had kids.
Speaker 2I'm not doing it great. I'm really trying to learn who I am and grow to be the best person I can be. And show you how to do that.
Speaker 3If you'd come for coffee some morning and our oldest son says he just had it so tough because we tried to be good parents. We were really, really strict. He thinks his younger two brothers, which are twins number five and number six he just thinks they got away with murder.
Building a Multi-Generational Family Operation
Speaker 1We see that with a 17-year-old and a 13-year-old right now. That poor girl.
Speaker 2She's got, she's got four parents.
Speaker 3She's got us and she's got her older brother and sister and she's got it so easy but she thinks she's got it so hard. That's right.
Speaker 2Oh, it's so much fun. Yes, parenting is quite the journey.
Speaker 1The journey, it's a challenge, it's rewarding. It's a journey, it's a challenge, it's rewarding, but what?
Speaker 3a blessing to raise a family on a farm.
Speaker 2Absolutely.
Speaker 1Right, you know, and that's why we moved back. You know, I love it.
Speaker 2Well, I thought I was going to be a spinster for the rest of my life. Thank God I have Jesse.
Speaker 1Right, that's right. So that's actually a perfect lead-in, because you guys have a lot of different operations going. How do you guys make it all work? Because a lot of your kids are still involved and they all kind of have their own little side gig, I guess, right, right so how did you grow that?
Speaker 2and then individually like what? What are they doing?
Speaker 3So the custom work fits all kinds of bills, because someone that you plant and harvest for needs some dozing done. So you know we had a dozer. But my oldest son, he would have worked for us forever. But I said, mike, you need to have your own business. And it was a little bit eh. And now he has two dozers and he's 47 years old and he has his own business. So you create opportunities for your children.
Speaker 3Absolutely, and then you give them as much responsibility as they can handle, you teach them to give 110% and then you make sure they care about others and life will be good. So our oldest son has a dozer business. Our second son, who farms with his own family on his own him and I do a lot of stuff together but he has an excavating business and BJ has farm drainage and custom baling and and he farms. Our daughter, becky, has been involved in the past and she's she's a pastor's wife, wonderful, wonderful gal, most most talented and and she has done some farm photography and things. But they're, they have five children raising their family on on their own.
Speaker 3And then our last two were kurt and carl, and uh, uh, carl you've maybe met through bex, I'm not sure, but uh, he has a seed business, he custom finishes hogs for jbs. And uh, kurt, uh has kind of does the trucks. He's into the crop side of things and believe it or not when you talk about diversifying him and emily have just bought a wood fired pizza trailer and seeing the facebook wood fired pizza.
Speaker 2When are they?
Speaker 1going to bring that to west point they have about that's amazing they have about 50 venues to do this summer.
Speaker 2Fantastic.
Speaker 3And so Kurt, emily and their three boys are venturing out into the food truck business. That's awesome. But my point is you do want them. You don't want to just give them shares of a. I really feel strongly. You want to give them opportunities and help that family structure, make things happen, not just be. A lot of people disagree with me on that. They'd like to see a larger family and everybody has shares and everything, and not that we don't. We share machinery and stuff like that with Booner custom farming and things. But I really really strongly feel now I get to do it with I, the Lord and our family and others get to do it with grandchildren. We have a. Our oldest grandson and his wife have just bought a locker in Sully Iowa.
Speaker 2Fantastic.
Speaker 3And it's the second newest locker in the state of Iowa because it burnt in 17 or 18 and was rebuilt and the family, the Nickel family, is selling it to them on contract. And so Gideon and Emily and little Oakley have moved to the Sully community to be part of the community have moved to the Sully community to be part of the community and they're operating. They kill 17 to 18 beef and six or eight hogs a week. That's awesome.
Speaker 3And what's the name of their business? Market Locker Meat, sully, sully Locker and Sully Meat and Locker Locker and.
Speaker 1Sully Locker and Sully Mark, sully Locker and Sully Meet and Locker Locker and. Sully Something Locker and.
Speaker 2Sully One, prepared for the boondocks, I thought we'd put a little plug out there. One prepared for that one.
Speaker 1So you don't know this yet, but our previous episode is about our kids leaving, okay, and how we would love for them to come back home, and we've pretty much said you've got to go you've got to go to grow you got to go to grow and good not that we wouldn't love for henry he's a junior not that we wouldn't love for him to just stay here and work, because he is he is my right right-hand man.
Speaker 1I agree, and I would love for him to stay, but he still has to go, um, and we still sit here and try to think about opportunities and that's. You're a great example for us, anyway, of just trying to bring your kids back and keep them involved, but let them grow into their own opportunities, and that's just amazing.
Community Impact and Servant Leadership
Speaker 2Yeah, I think it's a. It's a great example of how you can make the multiple generations work within a farming operation, because that is what's really working for your family and it might not work for the next family, but it's a good example of how we as an agricultural community can support different operations and make agriculture stronger.
Speaker 3Our children all had to leave home more than just college, and Becky was the only one that went to a four-year college. The kids oldest went to the Marine Corps and then the other kids went to just agricultural two-year colleges or whatever you know and uh, but they all had to leave home and they were never encouraged to come back. I I that all happened.
Speaker 1They took their own decision.
Speaker 3Yeah, and that's amazing that they did yeah.
Speaker 3And that's a Testament to you and jan and the operation that you've built, and then, um, after mark had been with us he's 40, he's currently 45 or 6, about seven, six or seven years ago he said, dad, I really appreciate the way I was raised, with you needing me and me being under your feet and working all the time and stuff like that. I would like to have that opportunity for my own family. And I said, well, mark, we showed the community how we can get together, how we can live together with family, multiple families, without killing each other.
Speaker 1let's show how we can you don't have your own little spats moments? That's for another podcast okay, right, I said the good the bad
Speaker 3and the ugly, that's right let's show the community how we can go our separate ways in in a mutual and cordial way. And I said you going to have to take the twins are just coming into the operation. And I said you're going to have to take machinery with you and we'll just make a smaller company because you're, we don't have cash, you know. And so he took a tractor and a combine and on agriculture and and and, given them chores and responsibility.
Speaker 1What I can see. I know you really want to support your community and it's very apparent. So you're an hour and a half away from me so I don't get to Oskaloosa hardly ever, but they hold the All Iowa Show down there and it's your grill that they grill with there and I'm like doesn't surprise me a bit. Steve's got his grill up here at the fairgrounds. What?
Speaker 2about when we went to Gray and Kamen this year. We were down there and we were talking about the farmer's greatest asset with some people there and they brought up, well, do you know, steve Boonder, and we're like, oh, oh yes.
Speaker 1Everybody knows Steve.
Speaker 2Like your name got brought up, I think three or four times when we were there and we were like yeah, I think everybody knows, steve it's. It's so wonderful to see how, uh, someone living a servant life through agriculture can really just spread the goodness. That is the true wealth that God has given you.
Speaker 3What I like about the name of your book and also your podcast is the Farmer's Greatest Asset and we need to ask God for help and work on that asset as far as being a respected person in our community and and having relationships and sharing with others. And, uh, I really feel when you shovel out, God shovels back and God has a bigger shovel. Hmm, I like that.
Speaker 2I like that a lot of that. I like that a lot.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, no, that's so true, but and I love that shovel analogy, I've written that more than a couple times in that one when you share your faith, it's powerful for yourself it is, but it's also powerful for the next person listening, absolutely. And when you live a servant life and you so I've kind of written it's basically a big circle. You live a servant life, but you also got to look for the blessings and then got to look for the blessings, and then when you look for the blessings but then thank God for it and give back, god keeps giving back. And it's just you could and I've. It's taken me 40, some years, but you know my whole injury. And then getting to meet you and you just learn, and all of a sudden it's like, oh wow, the flow just keeps coming. God keeps giving. Yeah, god keeps giving.
Speaker 2Yeah, we are the ocean, you know, like we are all drops in God's ocean but together we're an ocean so we can't affect. I mean we can't do something without affecting the other drops of water within the ocean. So when you get a good movement and get that flow, it just continues like the waves in the ocean.
Speaker 3And we don't necessarily know our purpose. But if we're open to those nudges that I said about earlier, or we're open to a conversation with God, every day those become more apparent and then, yeah, amen, the blessings keep coming. Absolutely.
Speaker 2I call those downloads.
Speaker 3There you go.
Speaker 2You just be open for God to download it into you so you can speak it out into existence.
Speaker 1That's right, we're here to spread his word.
Speaker 2That's beautiful. So tell us some of the key lessons you've learned along the way.
Legacy and Letting Go
Speaker 3Mm-hmm. One of the key lessons that I've learned is I like stories. For an example, I was standing in line with someone else one evening it was an actual funeral visitation, I can't remember even who it was and the guy beside me looked at me and he says by God, Steve, we made it on our own, didn't we? And how do you answer that? You know, and you know we didn't. I didn't have parents, parents, wonderful, powerful Christian parents, but there was help along the way. So what have I learned? I have learned that it's okay to be dependent on God and dependent on others during that time frame, and also it's so fun to give. And I've also learned that sometimes you have to receive so others can give. And we just went out for lunch on a Sunday and a pastor and his wife said it's your 50th anniversary, we want to pay for the meal, and Jen and I really didn't celebrate that much anyhow, and rather than saying oh, no, no, no, no, we're going to get it, it's like thank you. I appreciate that Sometimes you just need to receive, and they have the joy of giving and we could be blessed by receiving.
Speaker 3I think I've learned to be a better listener. I enjoy visiting, but I think sometimes we do the most good by listening. We have a 6 am coffee time this time of year when people start coming about six and even the salesman know if they come at seven o'clock they're going to catch anywhere from a half a dozen to 14 of us in there. You know, and uh, and sometimes uh, listening does more good than waiting to talk, and and so, uh, oh, life is a life is a continual learning process.
Speaker 3And now our help. I'm totally okay. I'm learned that our, our help can be better at things than I am, and that makes all of us better. I also learned, especially when it comes to technology. And now you know exact, apply and see and spray and and the satellite, all this. Someone that's 68 years old doesn't have to know all that you know. It might be good to know enough to how to run it when someone else has a meeting or something, but as far as uh, I can allow, I've learned that a good leader allows others to bloom and blossom, and if they become better at it than you are, that's okay that's beautiful delegation, not many farmers are that way and it's so.
Speaker 1My dad's 77 and he just retired and he he loves farming I get it, um, and I see that it's hard for him to delegate or let others do it or, you know, just step back completely from farming. Yeah, and you've, you've learned that at 68, or maybe even sooner. That's awesome that you can do that.
Speaker 3Jen and I went to Arizona this winter. We enjoy each other's company, we drive there, we drive there. We stay four nights. We drive back home. People say you what? But we get to be there down the way, we get to be there on the way home. We enjoy the community, but it makes you think and things happen.
Speaker 3Things get along real well while we're gone, so pretty soon you start to think you know, I don't want to be in the way either, and so I came home to be kind of neutral when we first got geared up back into. And our kids make all the machinery buying decisions. Are our kids, uh, make all the seed and fertilizer decisions and do all the variable rate stuff? But sometimes I'm still involved in the day to day, meaning uh, you know what, and so mentally I'm ready to give that up to help with responsibility. What I'm finding out is our kids and their families are so busy that when I don't do it it puts a lot of pressure on them. They would rather that I still delegate, not in a way that says you're going to do this as a dad and keep your thumb on people, but Carl can go home and babysit while his wife coaches volleyball, and, and, and it's not babysitting, steve, yeah.
Speaker 2He's caring for his own child.
Speaker 1That's what I was always told anyway, and so um, so I have been.
Speaker 2I'm proud of you for saying that.
Speaker 3It only took 18 years to
Speaker 2get there, you're right.
Speaker 3But so I have continued. As long as God gives me the health Jan's a wonderful helper with that I'll continue to finish strong I guess. As far as far as not maybe in a way that I make all the decisions, but in a way that I can, that I can help the operation and and and the kids help everybody individually grow, exactly Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, and maybe give them more time with their families.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly, and you maybe had the opportunity. We're empty nesters now and we'd just driven to Arizona and back. We've had lots of time.
Speaker 1No, it's good. So I've told Leah for years now that when I'm 65, I would retire and we joked with the kids one day about how we would have an RV, a motor home or something and we'd go South for a month and Leah said she would never do that because of the grandbabies and her daughter was sitting there, lucy and I said we'll just take the grandbabies with us. She doesn't think I'll be able to retire at 65 and take off for a winter.
Speaker 2I think that we'll have work there. I don't know that we can actually go and do nothing. So, it'll probably be like we're going to have to have a business down south Sure. So we can keep busy doing something.
Speaker 1Yeah, but it's good to see that you're. That's how you're. You know you're still involved.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 3You're helping others grow and eventually somebody will step into that lead role, exactly, and you know spring break's getting to be a bigger and bigger vacation time for families, you know, and, and we've had a couple couple kids head somewhere. Just you know they got college kids shooting on national ski teams or something like that. So they're driving there or or they're taking their family somewhere and, and, jan, I still have the health to to help out when, when, when needed and and so, uh, but I, I never, I never want to be in a role any longer than I'm needed there. You know what I'm saying. I, I want, you don't want to overstay your welcome.
Speaker 3Well, and not only that. You don't judge the success of a person by how well or how much his business needs him.
Speaker 1You judge the success of that person by how well it runs when he's gone you told me that on the phone the other day and I love that and it's because I said you know what the farmer's greatest asset is and and that's what you said to me it's how well the business runs when you're not around.
Speaker 3Yep, when you're gone yep, and that's part of a legacy you know we talk about. We talk about, okay, what do we want to be remembered for when people are standing? I was talking about standing in a funeral visit. What do we want people to talk about when they're standing in our funeral visitation line? You know, and hopefully it's that in my case he loved his God, he loved his family, he loved his job, and in that order.
Speaker 1You know, it's bigger than that, but that was what I would like as far as you know, I'm sure you've had your struggles and I I have as well. And putting God first, yeah, and it takes work, it does it worked every day, really, and I lose it daily as well, and what.
What Success Really Means
Speaker 3what you'll find out is when I was, when I was your age I was just a little bit younger than you, when you know when God got my attention and said okay, I'm here to help you, you don't have to do this all by yourself. You know and and so, but the older you get, the more you realize your dependence on God, the more you realize what less you have to stay on earth for. I remember old folks saying they wanted to go to heaven.
Speaker 3And I'm like, well, I'm, I kind of enjoy it down here and we do, and that's where that's our purpose here, but there is a time we're not going to stay here, and the only people, the only thing we can take after life, is our family, who we've influenced and been an example to, because you don't see a U-Haul trailer behind a hearse. I mean, you know, we're not going to take land and iron with us.
Speaker 2You know, I have always thought what if heaven is really the amount of love that you've given in your life, Like? What if that is the heaven that you will receive? So then, when you think of it in that way, the more that you give, the more you get.
Speaker 3The Bible talks about rewards. You know, great will be your reward in heaven, and those of you that have done the least of these, my brothers, you've done it unto me. So, yeah, I was raised in a very traditional church and heaven was going to be like wings and choir practice, and I just wasn't into that much.
Speaker 3But it's way more than that. You know, the Bible talks about a new heaven and a new earth and we will absolutely be busy in heaven and we will absolutely have relationships in heaven. It'll just be without the pain and sin.
Speaker 1Thank you, steve, for being with us and everybody else listening on this episode of the Farmer's Greatest Asset. Next week we're going to come back with more from steve, so stay tuned. If you like the podcast, if you like what you heard or want to hear more, uh, let us know.
Speaker 2Subscribe, like, share or you can email any suggestions to farmer's greatest asset not with the um at gmailcom, if you have any recommendations on what you'd like to hear, what you'd like to hear more of Um and if you'd like to hear any more from Steve it's a good day to have a great day, you, betcha.
