The story of
THE SKINNY LITTLE COW!
Mind you, this is not my story (although it has a few "enhancements" of my own for story telling purposes). I am not sure of its origin but its message is one to learn from that is for sure.
Before we begin I would like you to contemplate two questions.
1. What is keeping you from receiving the promised blessings of the Lord?
2. What do you, personally, need to change so that you are open to receiving those blessings?
Lets begin.....
We come upon a student who is searching for success. After not finding it on his own, he seeks out the Master, a very successful man, and asks him, "What is the key to success?"
The Master smiles warmly, "follow me and I will show you." The student follows for many miles climbing tall hills, walking through valleys, wading rivers, and finally at the top of a hill the Master stops, "What do you see?" he inquires. "I see a small farm, a family of four and a skinny little cow." "Yes," says the Master, "and that skinny little cow is how that family of four survives." "How is this supposed to teach me the key to success? This family is just barely surviving. Why have you brought me here?" murmured the disheartened student. The Master, understanding the student's frustration, kindly told the student to, "come back to the top of this hill at midnight tonight and I will show you."
The young student was disappointed, "He is just leading me about. Why should I return?" Once he calmed down the student realized that the Master must understand something that he didn't, for he was successful and the student was not. He decided to return as the Master had requested. When he arrived at the top of the hill he found the Master standing next to the skinny little cow. "The key to success is right before you. It has always been before you," the Master motioned to the skinny little cow. "What?" exclaimed the student, "I don't understand. This doesn't make any sense. How is that skinny little cow supposed to bring me success, it can hardly provide for the little family of four?"
The Master turned and to the shock of the student killed the skinny little cow. The student didn't know what to say, this was the livelihood of this family of four. Without the cow they would certainly die. "What did you do that for? Now the family of four will die." The Master spoke reassuringly, "You do not see yet. Come back in five year and you will understand the key to success, do not come back before that five years." The student walked away even more disheartened, knowing he would return and that family would no longer be alive. He still didn't understand what the Master had done. Why would he do that to that family? Why must he wait five years to know how to be successful? He was completely befuddled.
Five years came and went, the student grew and became much wiser and started to find bits of success here and there, but he wanted to become like the Master, and so even though he still could not fathom why the Master did what he did late that night five years ago, the student returned to that hill top. He was astonished when he reached the top and saw a magnificent mansion and a beautiful farm with a whole heard of livestock. He thought, "surely the family of four died and a wealthy man came and purchased their farm." He decided to go find out and knocked on the door of this magnificent mansion. He was completely taken back when the door opened and there stood the family of four he had seen five years ago, but the family of four was a little fatter and a lot happier!
When he finally came to himself, the student asked, "How did you do it? What happened over the past five years to make you go from barely surviving to thriving?" The family sat him down and shared their story, how five years ago, in the middle of the night, someone came and killed their skinny little cow. The cow was their livelihood and once she was gone, they had nothing. They were scared at first, but realized that they could survive in other ways and soon realized that they had been living way below their potential. Their were so many opportunities laid out before them now, since they did not have to feed and take care of that skinny little cow. The family continued sharing how it was NOT easy and they struggled for the first couple of years, but it was well worth it....and now they wished they could thank that man who killed their skinny little cow that night five years ago because it changed their lives forever.
The student walked away realizing what the Master was trying to teach him about success. You have things in your life that are keeping you from receiving the blessing and success you are meant to have, those are you skinny little cows that you must "kill." Once you kill those skinny little cows in your life, that time and energy that you previously took to feed and care for that cow can now be put towards becoming all that you can become. That is the key to success, just as the Master said, "Is right before you. It has always been before you."
There are many lessons that can be learned from this story, but i hope you take some time to think about those two questions I asked at the beginning related to this story:
1. What is keeping you from receiving the promised blessings of the Lord?
2. What do you, personally, need to change so that you are open to receiving those blessings?
What are you "Skinny Little Cows" in life that are holding you back? Take some time to evaluate your life. Blessing (success) is right in front of you, you just have a skinny little cow blocking your way. The Lord wants us to be successful, he wants to bless us, but as long as we have those skinny little cows blocking our view and wasting our energy he can not give those blessings to us as freely as he would like. Let us "kill" our skinny little cows, and although the road may not be easy to travel past that cow....the journey will well be worth it in the end! Have faith in the Master! He knows something that you do not, he has been there and he knows you (even better then you may know yourself, trust him when he helps you by killing one of your skinny little cows. Be patient with yourself as change happens because of this, you can do anything with the help of the Lord. We do not change all at once, its here a little and there a little to become like the Master!
The Lord (just like the Master in this story) "showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace,...that we have power to do [the hard things]." (Jacob 4:7) He knows we are capable of so much more and he shows us our weakness that we may grow. As we turn to him and trust in his grace having "faith in [him], then will [he] make weak things become strong." (Ether 12:27)
Understand, you don't have to go out and "kill" ALL your skinny little cows at once, start with ONE, let the Lord help you and take it one day at a time!! :)
