Upheld In Trying Again…and Again

It’s become a tradition. My daughter and her boys come to the Spokane County Interstate Fair and Wyatt becomes a mutton buster. 

What is this, you ask? Well, it’s sort of like riding a horse that broncs – you stay on the animal until a time buzzer sounds and your time determines your place in the winner’s circle—or not. 

Little guys ride sheep.

 Wyatt tried three times to ride a sheep all the way to the end of the pen. He didn’t quite make it to the end of the pen, but he did rack up a good time on his first run. Wyatt and his buddy ripped out of the starting gate and this sheep was just as determined to shake the kid as Wyatt was to hang on. The sheep turned several circles before Wyatt landed on the dirt. I swear that sheep was grinning as it trotted to the end of the pen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After what looked like a great start, sheep number two dumped Wyatt in a cloud of dust asap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When an immediate fall happens, the young rider is offered another chance. So, Wyatt shot out of the gate with sheep number three.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Persistence paid off. Though Wyatt’s intention was to ride a sheep to the end of the pen, it was with sheep number one that Wyatt won his second place medal. He stayed on for the required time and rode that sheep in all its curly cue surprises for him.

 

It occurs to me that this is a great picture of what our intentions are, yet the prize comes another way and surprises us.

I wonder if our Father God is standing on the sidelines like we do for sweet young ones as they try to succeed in their accomplishments? What if, in the thing you attempted today, you could see Father standing on the sideline clapping His hands, hollering encouragement and feeling your “agony of defeat” AND your thrill of winning the medal? I wonder how proud of you He looks? Don’t you?

“ ‘I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty” II Corinthians 6:18.