Practical Advice for Young Men Interested in Tending the Land
Because there are so few young farmers, there is a big need today for young men to become farmers. The problem is, most of them don’t have the luxury of parents or grandparents who farm who can help them get started. Instead, their family is probably more likely to say, “Why in the world would you want to be a farmer?” I believe that God desires young Christian men to come and work the land and care for it. Therefore I have a few words of encouragement and tips for young men who desire to farm.(These can apply to young women as well, but since I am a young man myself this post is directed to other young men.)
1. Don’t Judge Your Success According to Worldly Standards
Many people will tell you how to be successful in life. They will judge you when you don’t meet their standards. However, what you need to be concerned about is meeting the standards of success that the Lord has given you. Some people may think that you are wasting your life if you decide to be a farmer. If you are seeking the Lord and are farming for His Glory, then you will be successful according to His definition. Farming is a very honorable and rewarding profession. Consider how many people continue to farm even when they lose money! It’s a calling that fulfills in a very fundamental way the desire God gave each of us to be fruitful.
2. Make Sure Your Motives are Right
If you are a Christian young man who wants to farm, you need to make sure that you look at your heart and make sure your motives for farming are right. Do you want to farm just because you think it will make you happy, or do you want to farm because of a desire to glorify and serve the Lord? If you don’t build on the right foundation with the right heart, then you will end up being unsuccessful and unhappy.
3. Sow in Season (develop your skills)
To be able to begin building a farm as a young men, you need to make sure that you sow in season. Proverbs 20:4 says: The sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but does nothing. When you are young you need to be preparing to be a useful man whom the Lord can use. If you sense that the Lord is calling you to farming, begin preparing as early as you can with what God has given you. Use every opportunity you have to learn the skills and knowledge you will need in farming. Read and ask lots of questions, then hold the answers up to Scripture. You will probably never have as much time as you do now to learn things. Sow in the season that you are in now, so when the time comes you can be prepared and equipped to be a Godly farmer.
4. Be Faithful in Little
If you want to farm, don’t wait until you have more land, more tools, more everything. Be faithful with what God has given you right now. If your family lives in town and you have a small yard, then begin to learn how to care for it and grow things. If you someday want to have livestock, are you doing a good job taking care of the family dog? How can you expect the Lord to entrust you with more of His Creation if you haven’t done a good job with what you already have? If you can’t be faithful with a window box or pet, then you probably won’t be faithful with a garden or a farm. Start today! Grow something. Do a good job to the glory of God.
5. Seek Godly Farmers to Work with and Learn From
It’s very hard to learn farming apart from doing it. One of the best ways to learn how to farm is by working with a godly farmer. Even if you only have access to a somewhat moral farmer, there are many things you can learn from him. Make sure that you filter anything you learn through God’s Word, even things you learn from a godly farmer. Many older farmers I have met and talked to have excellent knowledge and wisdom in caring for the land and working with their hands, but they have a hard time finding help. Few people seem to appreciate their wisdom. When I was preparing to farm I worked for several farmers without pay in return for the opportunity to ask questions and learn from them. If you are going to learn from someone, I suggest you don’t work for pay unless you absolutely need the money. To justify paying you they will have to put you to work doing some unskilled job and you won’t learn as much as you would if you were able to work alongside them and take time to learn things.
6. Be Very Humble
You and I know very little about farming. I believe the best farmer in the world has only begun to scratch the surface of all that there is to know about producing things from the soil. Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be resistant to rebuke or correction. If you want to become a wise farmer, you will listen. The more you know about farming, the more you will begin to understand how much you don’t know. You can always learn more. Listen to someone explain something even when you think you already know it, because they will probably say something that you don’t know. “Do you know what the brix level of a plant means?” they may ask you in the midst of a conversation. You may have learned a little about it before and want to say, “Yeah, sure!” However, I have found it to be much more helpful to respond with something like, “I have read or heard about it before, but could you explain it to me again?” If you want to be a wise farmer, you must learn to be humble.
7. Be Willing to Start out at the Bottom
Farms take a lot of energy and work. Most of the time one won’t be handed to you or placed in your lap. You will have to work for it and gradually build from the ground up. Starting a farm is often a multi-generational project and you need to be willing to be a stepping stone for future generations. I like to think that a lot of the work I am doing building our farm, improving the soil, establishing markets, creating infrastructure, planting trees—it’s all a legacy for my children. They can move on beyond what I have done and build on my shoulders. That means I must be willing to provide a foundation for them.
8. Be Creative
As a young farmer you may not have many resources. Maybe you have family that can help you or maybe you don’t. Don’t be discouraged. God will always provide a way for us to do what He has called us to. If He has called you to be a farmer, then He will provide you the means to be able to do it. You just have to be faithful to use the resources He has given you in a creative way. Just because you don’t own land doesn’t mean you can’t farm. You can rent land, or lease it. When starting out I would highly recommend not buying land so you can be flexible while learning and can better know what land you need. If you are limited in space there are lots of ways you can utilize small plots intensively. We usually have more resources than we think. We don’t always have to go into debt. Look for creative solutions to your problems
(This post is adapted from an excerpt from my book, Born-Again Dirt, Farming to the Glory of God.)
Want a Free Chapter?
Subscribe to get our latest content by email and download a Free PDF chapter of my book, Born-Again Dirt, Farming to the Glory of God!
Thank you for your kindness in sharing what God has given you. My family just moved to acreage. We have not farmed before. My 2 daughters and I are looking forward to learning more from you at the Lamplighter Guild.
This post was just what I needed. I have been asking God what steps exactly do I need to take to move forward in my work. I am a nearly forty year old woman—saying that makes me feel ancient! Maybe I should have said I’m in my middle-ish thirties?—and have always wanted to homestead and to help provide for the poor since I was a girl. I am suffering the consequences of many bad decisions and many distractions and find myself poor and not at all where I intended to end up. I now see the importance of sowing in season and being faithful and humble. I believe God has called me to feed his people. Exactly how that will end up looking, I have no idea, but I am committed to doing it his way and not my own.
Thank you for the encouragement and the work you are doing to help others to glorify God in agriculture.
I love your web site. I think we need more Christian farmers, and also Christians who get the produce to the people, to the markets, restaurants, etc.. I have a son who can grown anything, it amazes me, plus he can cook too. But he takes on jobs to help him get by and I feel he may have a calling in farming, but he also doesn’t have anyone in his life to lead him in it. My great great grandfather was a farmer, but we don’t know much about him. I think in these last days we need Christians in this business and other food and water businesses, because we don’t know what we’re getting these days. I’d like to try to help my oldest son, the one who can grow food plants to get into this, he’s 35 yrs old. I’m praying for him to get into farming and am searching this information. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your inspiration about farming.
Thanks for the encouragement! May God lead your son into serving in the capacity of farmer or whatever else he has prepared for him. If there is any way I can help or encourage just let me know.