Working Together For Common Good

Working Together for Common Good

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

Hebrews 10:24

We often hear of Amish women gathering for sewing circles or canning. We know Amish men gather for barn raisings, but during the harvest season men also gather for threshing time. The threshing ring, once common among the English, is just one example of how the Amish work together to harvest their crops. The rings (or circles) consist of men and boys from neighboring farms who work together to complete the harvesting of one another’s crops, such as oats and corn.

During the threshing season, men run around to shock (stack) bundles as they are cut. The next step happens three weeks later when they return to thresh.

Even though it made you feel hotter, bundle pitchers almost always wore shoes or boots. The reason was snakes. Apparently snakes like the shocks and hide in them, probably to catch the rodents that feed on the grain. When we come along and mess up their homes, they don’t like it. Most wagons have a snake or two in them when you got them empty. There were no live snakes in the grain wagon, so I shoveled grain! Occasionally, there was a dead one that went through the threshing machine. After what happened in Genesis, the Amish attitude is the only good snake is a dead snake.

Despite the heat, I loved threshing. I still do. I have been accused of being in love with a threshing machine by my Amish friends. I will always consider the men and boys of the threshing ring to be my very best friends on this earth. I hope to see all of them in the next life.

Hard work doesn’t quite seem so hard when you’re working side by side with neighbors. Toil bonds friends, and when you give, you receive even more in return.

Is there a task that you can share with a friend? Find a time when you can invite someone to work alongside you, or offer to share a task with someone else. Not only will you get work done, but you’ll also grow your friendship!

Dear heavenly Father, I thank You for friends who come alongside me in my need. Help me to be that kind of friend to others, too.