BISMARCK, N.D. — The Christmas season is upon us. And just around the corner is the hope of a new year, 2020. Farmers and ranchers are probably more than willing to put 2019 in the rearview mirror.

It’s important to reflect on what happened in the 2019 year, but that’s only a reflection and we just have to glance in that rearview mirror to see how things worked or didn’t work in many cases this year.

But we need to continue looking out that windshield of life to the road ahead of us, the road of new hope, new opportunity and new thankfulness for what we’re provided.

The Christmas season can present some challenges for many folks who are reflecting on what they may or may have not gotten done this year. Or for some, it may be the first Christmas without that special loved one.

This season can be challenging, just like any other day can be challenging. We can have our rough days, our bad days, and we wonder how we’re going to make it through or why we should trudge through those rough days. But we have to remember we have all faced rough days in our past and we’ve all survived them. And we can continue to do that. Yes, sometimes it’s not easy, but other times it is when you look around you and count your blessings.

There are those that are more fortunate with material things than others, but yet the important things, the reason for the season, God placed His only Son here on Earth for a promise of salvation.

We celebrate that this Christmas season and we celebrate the new year coming to provide that new hope that new opportunity that we can take and hopefully have a more successful year than the one that’s in the rearview mirror.

From all of us at NDFB, we wish you a blessed and Merry Christmas. And may the new year provide new opportunities and many successes.  

For questions or comments, please contact Dawn Smith-Pfeifer.

— Daryl Lies, President of North Dakota Farm Bureau

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