Mastery is a term we give to those who are so proficient they could basically do it with their eyes closed and still achieve an amazingly good result.
You pay for a master carpenter to craft a beautiful piece of furniture. While I am relatively certain that I could craft a piece of furniture, quite frankly it would look like crap, and no one would buy it from me. My skill set lies somewhere else. Right now, that is.
None of us start out as masters of anything.
We spent months or years learning to crawl and then walk confidently as little kids. If something happens to our body, we might even spend years learning to walk again. And no doubt we fell a ton of times in between.
Mastery takes time, and lots of failures to get there. The first time we try something, it will probably not turn out great. The next time might be slightly better, but probably still resemble a decent failure.
Thomas Edison was once quoted on the number of “failures” for the invention of the light bulb as saying, “I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.” In other words, it took Edison 1000 times to become a master at building a light bulb.
If you never try, you will never gain any skills. And homesteading is no different than anything else.
If we never get rabbits, we will never gain the skills to handle rabbits. If we never grow a garden, we will never know what it’s like to pick fresh produce from a plant we nurtured from a tiny seed.
The key here is never give up and just keep trying.
The other day, I was discussing failure with our oldest. I put my arm out and told him to push my hand. He gave it a half baked attempt and gave up. This was clearly something he did not feel like doing. What teenager wants to learn a lesson from their parents? Finally, I got him to see the light and actually push.
When we try something only once and give up, we never give ourselves a chance to have success. And when we only focus on the “easy” route, we never learn the great benefits from the hard way.
Sometimes starting seems like a huge mountain. Could you really do this? Maybe that first time is downright awful. But it can get better, and will with time, practice and effort.
You will never be the master of all things. That slot is already filled by our loving Heavenly Father. But through gifts He gave us, we can become the master of single skills that can propel you to greatness.
Even if that skill is just raising kids or keeping a garden going year after year.
Never give up.