Learning new things.....

As my husband and I started this new year we decided to read the Word each day together. Now you might think that just reading the Word together is not anything new, BUT it is. I bought the Bible in a Year Bible and now I read out loud to my husband each day and then we discuss what we just read.
  I am finding that I am learning so many new things that I have never thought of before. Like just how good a farmer that Jacob was. He told his father in-law Laben that he would take all the animals that were spotted, neck ringed, and brown from Labens flocks and cattle herds as his payment for working for Laben. Now this was AFTER he worked for Laben for 14 years. Laben said "OK. Cull them all out of my herds and flocks all those that had any kind of blemish....". So Jacob did. The Word tells me that Jacob built fences to put his animals in and let them bred. He kept them so well watered and feed that they multiplied fast.
  Labens sons saw this and complained to Laben and told him that Jacob had bigger herds and flocks than Laben had. They were jealous because Jacob was doing so much better than them.
   It got me to wondering something. Was Jacob still sneaky, and conniving? Or was he a just man? Part of me says he never did change his behavior. I'm talking about cheating Esau out of his birthright and then Esau's BLESSING. The blessing that was rightfully Esau's. The other part of me believes that Jacob did learn a lesson. That God gave him the intelligence to multiply his cattle and flocks.
   It was interesting to learn also that Leah and Rachel put aside their differences and told Jacob that they should go back to his house because Laben their father never did pay Jacob their "bride price" that he would have had to pay. Instead Jacob worked for Laben to get his two wives.
   So that is something interesting that I have learned.