Looking back on this Christmas photo, I
see that my love of horses and adventure
started young.
When we gave one of our boys a
bouncy horse for Christmas years ago, he
started out a bit wary of it. He sat on it
tentatively, gripping the little red handles
tighter with each unexpected movement.
As parents, we kept a gentle hand right by
his side, steadying him and helping him to
find his balance. We knew that some sweet
day, he’d laugh and bounce and ride that
horsey like it was a bucking bronco, but he
just wasn’t very sure of it in the beginning.
Little did he know the adventures that
would await him on the back of that fine
steed! And so it goes with some of our
most precious gifts from God. We don’t
always know what kind of adventures lie
around the bend, yet we just have to grab
onto them and trust that our Heavenly
Father is right there with us along life’s
bumpy ways.
It took me more
than thirty years to
get my first real
horse. He was a 20-year-old swayback quar-terhorse, but he couldn’t have made me any
happier if he had been a Kentucky Derby
champion. Not being an experienced rider,
he promptly tossed me off of his back a
mere two days after getting him, yet nobody
had to lecture me about getting back in the
saddle.
I knew that he was a special gift from
the Lord and that he and I were going to
work things out. In those thirty some-odd
years, I’d had my fair share of bumps and
wild rides already, and I knew the comfort
that comes from feeling your Father’s
tender hand by your side as yo u
bounce along.
As I look now at four of my favorite
people in the world, Tony and the boys, and
I think of our life together, I am truly
grateful for God’s guiding hand throughout
my life. I never would have dreamed in my
teenage years that I’d be homeschooling,
living on a farm with a barnyard full of
animals 20 miles from nowhere, and that
my favorite thing in the world would be
just “being” here. Yet, it’s a great gift, a
great adventure, and I’m enjoying the ride.
– Nancy Carter
Director of Marketing, Editor of The Homeschool Minute, and Senior Contributing Writer
for the Natural Schoolhouse column. www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/tn3jcarter
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