Revisiting A Cow Story…

Today, I am posting a story that dates back a few years – as best as I can tell, it comes from a Reader’s Digest story in the 1960′s, but of course, this story has been posted and told numerous times, so finding the original is a bit difficult. To that end, I want to say right up front, this is not mine – If I have failed to give proper credit, it is because I was unable to authenticate it, and for that I apologize. I am happy to update the proper credit if and when I find it, but I want to reprint this story for two reasons:

1. It blesses me and my husband treats me this way regularly. I am valued, honored, and given a role of “high price and worth” in my home. And,

2. Because in doing research for an upcoming webinar today, I knew that others would ask for this story, and so I wanted to have it available here for any other bloggers or participants in the conference.

And so, without further delay, the story of the 8 Cow Wife…. 

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Johnny Lingo, a man who lived in the South Pacific on an island known as Nurabandi. Johnny Lingo isn’t his real name, but a nickname he was given. The islanders all spoke highly of him. He was strong, good-looking, a capable businessman-trader, well-known in the villages, and very intelligent. But when it came time for him to find a wife, people shook their heads in disbelief. The woman Johnny chose from the neighboring island of Kiniwata was plain, skinny, and walked with her shoulders hunched and her head down. Her name was Sarita, and she was very hesitant and shy. She was also a bit older than the other married women in the village, which did nothing for her value. She hadn’t been “picked” yet…

But Johnny Lingo loved her, and what surprised everyone most was Johnny’s offer to Sarita’s father. In order to obtain a wife in that area, you paid for her by giving her father cows. Two or three cows were “average” and four or five cows were considered a high price – usually given for only the most beautiful of women. The other villagers thought Johnny might pay two cows if he was trying to allow Sarita’s father to save face. But instead, he gave eight cows for her!!

Everyone in the surrounding islands chuckled about it, since they believed his father-in-law put one over on Johnny. Some thought it was a mistake and that Johnny had not been as sharp as they had all given him credit for being.

But several months after the wedding, a visitor from the United States came to the Islands to trade, and heard the story of Johnny Lingo and his eight-cow wife. Upon meeting Johnny and his wife the visitor was totally taken aback by a stunning woman who entered the room, and was introduced as Sarita. The visitor couldn’t believe his eyes since this wasn’t a shy, plain, and hesitant woman, but one who was beautiful, poised, and confident. She was breathtaking and “glorious!”

The visitor asked about this transformation, and Johnny Lingo’s response was very simple. “I wanted an eight-cow woman, and when I paid that for her and treated her in that fashion, she began to believe that she was an eight-cow woman. She discovered she was worth more than any other woman in the islands. And what matters most is what a woman thinks of herself.” 

——–

And now my two cents worth…Johnny Lingo had “shown up” into Sarita’s life. He had taken action to purchase her with confidence of her worth, and he valued her again and again by treating her with love in this way – it transformed her! 

While we all want to be the Sarita’s in this story, I want you to focus on Johnny Lingo…think of his actions and his persistence. If you applied those traits to others in your lives, what difference could you make for them?

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”  (1 John 4:11-12)