~Your Heavenly Father

Postmarked - Today and forever

  My Dearest Daughter,
  
  I want to tell you how much I truly love you and wish that you would return my love. I wait for you. All day if I have to, but O how it hurts when you don't come! Some days we spend long hours together in conversation, while other days you merely give me a nod of recognition.
  Daughter, where is your heart today? (I ask for your sake. I already know.) If it was in me, you would not have yelled at your sibling or given that look of disgust to the immodestly dressed girl you passed on the street. If your heart had been focused on me you would have seen that your sibling was only trying to help and that girl on the street? She has never had love and protection from a father. She has not yet found me either. Why do you think I had her cross your path?
  Give me your heart child. You think you have, but I can see into the corners where you are still holding on tightly to a few reserved pieces; afraid to let me take full control.
   Daughter, please trust me.

Love,
Your heavenly Father  

~ To Compromise

  Satan is out to get you. (I hope you realize that by now.) He wants you no matter what, no matter the method he has to use. He hates to see revival in your life and he will fight for you even harder when he sees it happening. Satan comes to you saying that he only wants to make a deal with you. He will give you peace and prosperity, he says, but who is talking? The Bible calls him "the father of lies." You can NOT listen, cling to God's word! Satan may promise freedom, but in the end, it is only bondage that you are left in.

  You do not need to fear him! You can not compromise because compromise always takes away the glory of God. His word is not negotiable. It is firm. It is true. You are loosing ground to the enemy with every single itty-bitty compromise you make.

 

 That outfit is modest enough, isn't it?

It won't really matter that much.

I can do it just a little bit. 

No one would ever know.

  

  If you ever find yourself talking or thinking along these lines, you are dabbling in compromise, and God is obviously not in the center of your life, nor is He being honored. It is sin. Will you admit that? Will you repent and turn away from it? True repentance is always followed by obedience. 

   

  To sum it up, yes, Satan will fight to get you back, but God is stronger! He has already won! Cling to Him, live in accordance to His word, and you will conquer!   

~Without faith

  
"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him."

Do you believe that? That without faith it is impossible to please God? Even though your life may look good, you do the right things, say the right things; if you don't have faith it is meaningless because God will reject it. 

He will reject your life.

He will reject you.

You MUST have faith! And faith in God comes from resigning your will totally to Him and trusting your life totally into His care. He can take care of you. If you let Hi, if you ask Him, He will take care of you! (Philippians 4:19) 

  Ok trust me on this one, because I'm learning this right now. And do you know what? He hasn't let me down, and He won't because He can't. His word is true!

     You MUST have faith! We must do our part and then He will do His. 

"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and fortress, MY GOD!

In HIM will I trust!

~Psalm 91:2

Marcy and I took Dandy and Hank back to the creek yesterday to take these pictures and I'm really happy with them!

I was trying for a reflection shot but Hank had other ideas! Water is just a big toy to him! He thinks it is his duty to splash and paw whenever in it! But I did get the picture I wanted! I had to wade in up to almost my knees! It was cold in the beginning! But I had so much fun even after my boots filled up with water! The only drawback was that I could NOT fall with the camera! And I didn't so it was good!

But I'm not putting on the good one! I took it for the new photo challenge on Girlfriend Gazette so if you want to see my GOOD one you'll have to wait for their next issue to come out! And you can join in on the fun and enter a "reflection" picture of your own! Check it out!

Hank and Marcy did so very good even though poor Marcy got missed in a lot of the pictures! 

Woops! Sorry Marcy! Oh and not to forget my Dandy boy! He stayed on shore for Hank's moral support!

~Riding Dunny

Hey I rode Dunny today and Tashia came out to take some pix for me!

She did a really good job! I am so happy with these pictures! Thanks Tash!

Although some did get a little blurry or not quite focused but we were moving a bunch so it's understandable.

We ended up taking a bunch!

I started off doing some groundwork with him first since I haven't done it in a while, but mainly just for fun! I do what Clinton Anderson calls "Lunging for respect and roundpenning for respect." It pretty much consists of directing the horse, keeping it's mind on you and disengaging the hindquarters. Since starting to use this method Dunny has really calmed down and started trusting me more. He still doesn't trust much at all but there is progress. He's a very tense horse so I like these exercises to get him relaxed before I ride. I don't do it every time. Just when I feel like it. I'd encourage you to go watch  some of Clinton's stuff. Especially his walkabouts. I've never seen them in person but I watched it on his TV channel.  

I had a bunch of small logs lade out in a circle and lunged him around them. He was a bit dopy though. He doesn't pick up his feet as much as he should.

Good boy!

Working on disengaging the hindquarters. I usually start off by doing this. I learned it from watching some of Clinton's stuff. I start by tipping his head back to me a bit, while encouraging him to move his hindquarters around. I either swing my whip a little or tap him on the rump. It's just like swiveling on the front end instead of the back. Because he they should just pivot on the front end. 

Then on to tacking up. He's such a good boy I don't need to tie him. Unless maybe if we were standing in grass, THEN we might have a bit of a problem. He can't resist eating! (Can't you tell!) When I was cinching him up I was like "You are FAT!"

Dunny knew how to ground tie when we got him so I didn't have to teach him that, but I have been training some of my other horses to. I start off by stopping them and dropping the lead to the ground. Maybe pet on them a bit and tell them to "stay," I like to use a hand signal with it. Usually I just hold up a hand when I say that. Not a limp hand. You need to have it stiff like you are commanding something. Then take a few steps away. If they stay standing, go back and tell them "good", pet them, what ever your reward is. If they do move to follow you or walk away, taker the leadrope and back then up to where you had them and do the same thing again till you can walk away, around, behind, what ever direction you want but that they stay there. Don't get frustrated. I'll take some time but if you keep at it your horse is sure to get it!  

I then warmed him up and did a good bit of cantering.
Yeah I ride forward. He is kinda hard to sit on when he's worked up. His strides are pretty surging until I can get him to collect. He likes to keep his head up though so I do need to work on lowering it a bit. A lot of fine tuning, but isn't that riding for ya?

On to jumping we go!! Nothing big, but I think it's fun! When I was younger a friend taught me how to jump English and ever since then I've been hooked! I can normally just feel when I need to rise and don't really have trouble going along with him. And yes you can jump western just watch out for the horn!

I LOVE JUMPING!!

And a bit more jumping!

Did I mention that I like jumping?? Ok I guess you get the idea!

• Do you like jumping? 
• English or Western?
• Have you taken lessons?
• What riding and training style do you use?

~Broken

  

>Yeah she's a bit dirty. Silly girl has a thing for laying in the worst places.<

  God delights in broken things because it is only when we have nothing left that we can realize the absolute need for Him.

  I'm not talking about a broken heart after a failed relationship. No. I'm talking about realizing that you. are. nothing. (That sounds harsh but please keep reading.) Your goals are insignificant. Your life without Him is useless, and the sin you live in is separating you from God. You trying to do good things on your own, is reeking in His nostrils. (Isaiah 64:6) And He would be completely just in sending you to hell. (all of us)
  But He doesn't want that! (2 Peter 3:9) So He gives you time. What will you do with that time? Go on living the same as you always did, or realize that He wants you. Do you see that? He wants YOU! An all-powerful, all-knowing God wants you! Not just part, not mostly, but all of you!
  So now you can see some of His holiness, His power, His might. Then you take a look at yourself: the pride, the deceit, the wickedness, how could He want you?
  {Psalm 51:17}
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise."
God desires a brokenness for sin. That's what He wants from you. Broken, humble, repentant, and then He'll add one- Forgiven!

 

~You can trust Him

  I want to share with you, four little truths that could (should) make a big difference in your life. I heard it from a preacher once and I've never forgotten it.
  These four things I'm about to tell you, are absolutes. They won't change, never have, never will. No matter who you are they apply to you! Whether or not you accept or believe them does not change their validity.

 So here they are:

1. God is older than you. {John 1:1-3}
2. God is wiser than you {Isaiah 55:9}
3. God loves you VERY much {John 3:16}       

And the last one. Are you ready?

     4.  You can trust Him {the Bible}

You can trust Him. 

You don't know and will not know true peace and joy until you can wholeheartedly say "I trust you Lord" and then live it out.

  If you just agreed to the first three things then there really shouldn't be anything keeping you from accepting the last one.

  Maybe you think "If I give God everything and trust Him to lead me, He might ask me to do something crazy like- go to be a missionary to some primitive tribe in Africa, or marry someone that's not very handsome or my type."

  So I have a few questions for you:

• Does God want what's best for you?
• Does He have a plan for you?
• Would God ever allow something that is not good for you?

Yes, humanly speaking, putting your life in someone else's control is scary.

But God is not human.

He does want the best for you. (His best.)

He has a perfect plan for you.

He will never allow something that is bad for you.

You can trust Him.

So the question is: will you trust Him?  

~Being a "one-man-woman" part 2

Click here if you want to see Part 1
What does saving your heart, soul, mind, body, and emotions entail?
Saving you heart.
  It's keeping it so that one day you can present it to your husband. Just think how special it will be to tell {HIM} "I waited completely for you, so now I can give YOU my whole heart. Not just broken pieces or parts of it. The whole thing."
Prov. 4:23 says to "Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." 
Really you have no right to give yourself away at all. (Not until God gives His permission) Are you under God's complete control or not?
Also in Prov. 31:12 it says "She will do {HIM} good and not evil all the days of her life."
Are you doing {HIM} good NOW, even before you're married? Flirting, having close relationships with guys, I don't think {HE'd} consider that being good to {HIM}.
Examine yourself. Are you doing things now that will hurt your future marriage?

Saving you mind. 
   I wrote about that more in THIS POST so I think I'll just let you go read that.

Saving your body.
  The first thing that comes to my mind is 1 Cor. 7:1b "It is good for a man not to touch a woman." If that confuses you a bit by the wording just rephrase it by moving the not in front of the good. It now says "It is not good for a man to touch a woman." Same meaning just a little clearer. And I really DON'T think this is talking about married couples!
  I don't believe it's right or good for a guy to touch me or for me to touch him. That right is saved for our spouses. Guys are set off primarily by seeing things but also by touching.
  You are responsible for how you display your body and possibly making men lust after it because of the way you dress. Do you realize that by wearing that "cute" blouse that fits you "just right", you are drawing men's attention to the shape of your body? That because it is tight they see your form and their minds do the rest? By wearing skirts or pants that show off your legs, you create an eye trap? If you are aware of this and what it is doing, how can you honestly say you are dressing modestly? Simply by not going as far as the world does, does not mean you are dressing modestly. Do you know what modesty is? It is a heart condition that manifests itself in how you appear. It must be in your heart and then lived out in your life. Modesty can NOT be simply in your heart, contrary to what lots of people are saying. Everything about modesty says "I want you to see Jesus through me. Not to notice me for the clothes I wear, but because of the freedom and joy I have in obeying Christ." Modesty will never make a man fall by looking at it. It is also to protect from defrauding one another; to keep yourself pure and the men around you. It's loving them enough to do everything you can to not make them fall. God will hold you accountable one day, for presenting yourself in a way that makes a man sin in his heart or in his mind. Do you know what defrauding is? I looked it up in the dictionary but all it said was "to cheat." Real helpful. So I went and asked my dad about it and he said a good definition to him is "to offer something that does not belong to you." By dressing immodestly you are offering your body to every guy you walk by. Therefore you are offering him something that isn't yours to give. Your body is God's and your future husbands. 1 Cor. 7:4 says "The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband: and likewise the husband hath not power over his body, but the wife."
Please love God and your future husband enough to save yourself entirely for {HIM}.

Saving your emotions
   This is actually something I struggle with. I'm an outgoing person. But containing our emotions is another thing in saving ourselves completely. You know as well as I do that girls are emotional. We can not be handing them out to everyone that comes along. So easily we become emotionally attached to a young man without even noticing. We are defrauding him by giving him our emotions that we should be saving for our husband and our husband only. Well you may say, he might become my husband. Even so, you need to save yourself for the wedding day then. You do to some extent start giving {HIM} your emotions before the wedding but I don't know how much or when it should happen. (I'm not there yet!)

So all this does come down to saving yourself for your future husband but also saving yourself as set apart for God. He wants you to follow His will for your life. He wants you to save yourself. He want you to stay clean and pure, His precious daughter.