Silo Shenanigans

A fun story from Family Ministries teaches an important lesson. 

“Make sure you stay in the back yard!” Mom called as Monte, Mark and their cousins, John and Sherri, ran out the back door.

“Okay!” Monte yelled back as he quickly ran to join the circle that was forming to begin a game of baseball. “Let's play ball!”

Monte was more than excited to be at his cousin’s house. John and Sheri lived on a farm on the outskirts of a small town in Ohio. They had large fields of growing corn, huge tractors that their uncle would let them ride sometimes, and lots of fun animals. Monte’s favorite animals were the cows with their lazy moos and the delicious milk they would provide for breakfast. Monte and his brother Mark lived in the city, which meant coming out to the farm was a big treat. They had been planning this weekend with their cousins for days and now it was finally here.

A vigorous game of baseball ensued with both teams scoring points and working up a sweat. After the last point was scored, Monte and his cousins plopped to the ground to catch their breath.

“Whew!” exclaimed Mark, “That was a good game!”

“Yeah!” agreed Sherri, “Did you see my homerun?”

The next several minutes were spent recounting the best moments of the game, excited about the bases they ran and the scores they made. All four of them wanted to be on the baseball little league team, and with tryouts coming soon, they were certain that their amazing hits would secure them a spot. But soon Monte and his cousins ran out of things to say about the game and began looking around for something else to do.

“I know,” John mischievously whispered as he leaned in to share his top-secret plan, “Let’s go climb the silo in the front yard!” A silo is a large tube sitting upright in the air made of metal that farmers use to store corn and grain that they grow in the summer. Most silos are 100 feet high, the same height of three school buses stacked on top of each other end to end!

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” muttered Mark nervously, “Mom told us not to go in the front yard and told us to never go inside the silo.”

“But we wouldn’t go inside,” John persisted, “we’ll climb the outside so it will be perfectly fine. We aren’t disobeying your mom at all!”

“Maybe John is right,” Monte considered, “let’s go!”

They ran to the silo and one by one began to climb the 100 feet to the top, glancing down frequently to make sure Mom was not in sight. Finally reaching the top, they could see for miles over the corn fields that surrounded them. The sun was beginning to set, painting beautiful colors across the sky. The far away farms looked like little play toys with toy animals walking in the fields.

But even the beautiful view could not shake the feeling that they were doing something wrong. There was no laughter or smiles on top of the silo, and soon all Monte, Mark, and their cousins wanted to do was to get off that silo. They started to climb down as quiet as mice for fear that they might get caught. They hurriedly snuck into the backyard and began playing baseball again acting as if nothing had happened.

Five minutes had passed by when suddenly from the front yard there was a loud KA-BOOM that shook the ground and rattled their ears. Looking at each other in fear they quickly dropped everything and ran to the front yard where the sound had come from. There, lying in front of them, was the silo broken and sprawled all over the ground. The same silo they had climbed down just five minutes before!

Mother and Aunt Shirley ran out of the house when they heard the big boom, looking around frantically for their four children. Seeing them in the front yard staring in disbelief at the silo, they ran quickly to them throwing their arms around them in a huge hug before looking around at the damages.

The children stood there, frozen in disbelief as they saw what could have happened to them if they had continued to disobey their mother. Their family farm truck had been in the way of the fall and had been crushed as flat as a pancake. That day Monte, Mark and their cousins learned an important lesson about listening to the Holy Spirit right away when they were impressed that they were doing something wrong. Not delaying in obeying, it could just save your life.

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