While at Mariah's horse lesson on Thursday morning, I learned or should I say seen a whole new lesson in a much bigger way: Words in action and action with words mean a whole lot more.
Before Mariah's horse lesson, we helped clean stalls and give feed to the horses. There is something so very therapeutic about being around horses AND cleaning their stalls! Seriously!
After this, it was time for Mariah to saddle up. Let me tell you something:
She makes it look SO EASY!!
Well, William told Mariah's horse instructor, Carol, "When are you going to get her [referring to me] up on a horse?" Umm ... yeah. Here's total honesty: I have this voice in my head that says 1. You're not thin enough to ride a horse and you'll break their back and 2. You're not ready. Here's reality: 1. I'm not too big to ride a horse. I am roughly "average" in weight now (weird to say that). 2. All horses are not created equal, just like we are not created equal. We all do different jobs; so do horses. And 3. I'll never be ready to get on a horse because I have this fear of being trampled on. What better way to conquer that fear than to JUST DO IT!
Carol said that I could cool down Leo (the horse) after Mariah was finished with her lesson. Let me just say that I seriously thought she would forget and/or wouldn't have me get on the horse. WRONG-O! Mariah finished her lesson and Carol said something like "Your turn. He needs a cool down." Freak-out mode went into affect as soon as I got up on Leo's back. It's a whole new world atop a horse!! Here's a secret: I absolutely LOVED it, besides the fact of feeling like the saddle was going to twist around the horse and I was going to fall off (no, the saddle really didn't feel like that -- it was in my imagination). Leo is an amazing horse! He use to be a cattle horse -- so to speak -- working with the cowboy to rope/round up cattle.
Have I told you how EASY Mariah makes it look to be up on a horse?? Mariah makes it look SO EASY to be atop a horse. She has amazing leg strength to get the horse to turn whichever way she wants the horse to go, something some riders don't know how to do so they use the reigns more often than using their legs. By the way, the upper thigh muscles on my legs are hurting today. What a GREAT workout!!
Anyway, the reason behind this whole blog post: Words are important. Actions are important. Sometimes it is harder to put the two together and make them mend intricately into one another. It takes time; however, BOTH are necessary for one another to be complete. We have all heard things like "Saying you love someone is one thing. SHOWING you love them is another." Looking at something and seeing how easy it is and hearing about it and talking about it is one thing. Doing it is completely different.
Take this Scripture passage for example:
James 2:14-26 (ESV)
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good[a] is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
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