“Keep his nose tipped to the first; keep him smooth. Once you’ve got the first, push like heck. He’s going to turn the second and third no matter how hard you ride, so ride as hard as you can. Start him over to the left of the alley; it’s offset a bit. That’ll give him plenty of pocket for the first. Just have fun. Are you ready? You've got this. I believe in you.”
I can remember these pep talks in the make-up pen of a horse show so vividly. Everything from the way the horse felt beneath me, the smell of tractor exhaust and horse sweat, and the sound of my dad’s voice as he’s saying these things and putting my rubber bands on. I can feel that nervous/excitement swelling up in my stomach, even though I’m fifteen years removed from the scenario. Those kinds of feelings and experiences, you just don’t forget.
Fast forward fifteen years. I’m standing in my driveway, holding my baby and watching my other one while he walks his heifer for the first time with his dad. I hear my husband say, “Keep your hand close to her chin on the lead. Always pay attention to where your calf is; don’t get distracted. Let’s stop her here; making her stand some is important. Good job, buddy. Are you having fun?”
I’m on the other side now, but I still feel that nervous/excitement like it were me on the end of the lead line. It’s a full circle moment. When I was sitting on my horse, a couple drags to go until my name got called, I never thought about how my parents felt, watching me….or that’s what I thought they were doing, just watching. But it was so much more than that.
It was being excited/nervous for me, but never letting it show. Studying the sport, and working with my sister and I, every day, so that we were ready for the weekend ahead. It was the pre-run pep talk, the post-run discussion. What went right and what went wrong; how can we fix it between now and the next run. Whatever sacrifices it took to get us there, they did willingly.
As a parent, that’s all we really want, right? For our child/children to be successful. To know what it’s like to win, and to know that they will always have someone in their corner when failure occurs…because it will; that’s life.
So then, this has me thinking. Take how we feel as parents, seeing our child navigate life. Our hearts swell with happiness when our children succeed, while they ache for them when they experience failure… I wonder how our Heavenly Father must feel, seeing His children experience joy or endure hardship? The juxtaposition of the scenarios allows me to understand, and I mean really understand, His love for us. Take the love you have for your child; the shear desire for them to be successful in all they do. God loves me more than that! He loves you more than that! It’s a love I can’t even imagine. He made the ultimate sacrifice for us, giving His only son so that we may succeed in eternal life with Him. May I always keep this in my heart and on my mind… “If God is for us, then who could ever stand against us.”
1 John 3:1
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him” (NIV)
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