~To overcome

(To start off with, you should have your Bible on hand.)

 (My lil' sister Jess letting Dunny lick her hand.)

He is victorious

He is all-powerful

He is almighty

He is supreme

  He is so much more but there are not enough words to describe Him! His being exceeds our understanding. But do you know that as followers of Christ we have access to all that He is?

He will give strength and peace-Psalm 29:11

He will give grace-James 4:6 (But there is a condition with that one. We need to be humble to receive it.)

He will give wisdom-Proverbs 2:6

 

  These are just a few that I picked out so you go and find more!

Do you believe God? Do you believe His word? If you do, accept it! Cling to it! Believe it! And live it!

   Here’s something for you to do. If you can, do it right now. You can say it in your head but it would be better to say it to God out loud.

 

  Dear Father,

I accept your word as truth and believe that you can show your power through me. That your grace is sufficient and that through you, I can overcome anything! Thank you God, for giving me the ability to be victorious.

Love,,

Your child who wants to know you  

If you have time here are a few more verses to look up. If you don’t have time, write them down so that you remember to check them out later.

~2 Corinthians 2:14

~2 Corinthians 12:9-10

~Romans 8:37

Now the last thing is that God has given you all this for a reason.

“For God, who commanded His light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

He is now saying “You have found me, it is your turn to show me to others.”

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;

  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

  Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

  Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

  ~Ephesians 3:16-21

~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?