Where do we get it?

If you love the country as opposed to the city, is that a God-given attribute? If you're good with animals, is that just a fluke or is that a gift from God? If you have natural abilities in a particular skill, Is that coincidence or is that planned?

Seems to me that it is planned and as such is a gift from God.

So if God gave someone a love for country and animals, why would He then stick that person in the midst of one of the largest metropoli in the world?

is this the same question:

why would He put His sheep - who love the things of heaven - in the world, which hates those things?

While we might never fully know why God does some of the things He does, we can always trust that He has a reason. Even if He allows people to make their own choices, He'll still use it for His good purpose.

The first thing I thought of when you wrote this post was about how so many people are displaced in today's world. Maybe they are the type of person you are describing, growing up in the country on a large farm, but maybe they marry someone who gets a good-paying job to support their family and has to move to the big city.

Maybe God is moving that person there because He knows there are other people in that city who long for similar things, and they need connections with others who feel the same way. Maybe there is an elderly neighbor who has fond memories of growing up in the country and needs someone to talk to, or maybe there is a young child who is interested in moving away to the country, and this person can give them sound advice. Maybe this person's desire for a different surrounding isn't about them, but is about the people God plans to introduce them to.

I am often amazed at how God brings people together.

Why did God put it on the heart of a young Caucasian couple who were content living in the middle of nowhere to adopt an Asian child who has always longed to see the world?

I don't fully know that answer to that question yet, but I am very familiar with that child, and I know that, as displaced as she might feel most of the time, God has definitely worked it all for a purpose.

I believe all our talents come from God. Some choose to grow and use those talents while others choose not to.
I read once that most people are in careers/jobs they are not really suited for. Same as for as where they live.
Basically, most people choose where they live and how they earn a living. No doubt some are the victim of time and circumstance.
Many could change where and how they live if they choose and are willing to give up some of the conveniences they enjoy.
After my son graduated college, he left Arkansas and after 12 years has secured a position that paid him over $200,000 a year with the potential to earn millions.
After 3 years, he walked away, returned to Arkansas and took a teaching position at $42,000 a year,
He said it was the beast decision he ever made.

Ricky, just sell everything and move. Be happy and serve God.

If only it were that easy. If I tore my mentally and emotionally disabled wife away from her mother she would never understand it and never forgive me. And I'd love to serve God - if only He would let me.

That's what I think too. But why give someone one skills and attributes for one environment and then consign them to the total opposite?

Well you've got a good point there. Doesn't matter where we are we're still in ####.

But here we are, and He still tells us (most of us at least) to go forth into the world in His Name. Why equip someone for part a of the world and then consign them to part z?

yeah, i mean, it is hard to comprehend His plan - i'm not tossing your question off
maybe the people in part Z need to be shown something about part A . . .?

or maybe you ought to move out of the city -- that, i do recommend.
((post lives out in the county))

Maybe take mother-in-law with you.
As for as serving God, He will not only allow you, He will lead and work through you if YOU ALLOW Him to do so.
It is all about doing what He wants you to do, not what you want to do.
I believe that we often think "God won't let me" because it is what we want to do, not what He would have us do.
Some times we need to just stop, back up to the starting spot, and pray and pray, and pray and do as He wishes.

Your in a very hard spot Ricky. You may have to somehow serve the Lord where you currently are located. I am also sure that you are serving the Lord by taking care of your sick wife. I was in a similar situation for years until my late second wife died. She died 5 weeks after her mom died. Her dad had died several years previous to that. I was in a very hard spot too under almost intolerable conditions. I feel your pain and will pray for God to give you suitable purpose, peace of mind and a certain measure of joy in your heart.

How would one know if they love the country and animals-if they're in the city? What if they move to the country and hate it?

You know, that was the plan. Followed God out to farmville USA, was taken right to the best little fortress in town, met loads of people I could socialize with and help out, and 4 years later we're still locked in the city by a 99% dead woman and her mentally/emotionally challenged daughter (my wife). C'mon now, why lead us to the promised land if it's only to look upon it from afar? That's the whole point of this thread - why equip and train me for outdoor work if all He wants me to do is sit in a dark 10 x 10 room and pray. I mean, that's an entirely worthy thing to do, but you don't hand a guy an auto mechanics toolbox and then tell him to go fix the plumbing.

And no, I'm sorry, we don't live in the age of Moses.

I wish we had.

Thank you I truly do appreciate it.

I am getting horribly homesick... aren't we all, eh?

How does one not know what God puts in their hearts?

So, is that an answer?