Cleaning your plate.

I can't tell you how much better I feel. The last few days I have taken some time to rest. My plan was to take off Friday because I had taken Spade to the vet to get his West Nile shot. Many people have told me that it makes them kinda sore. So Saturday I went out with my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary and I had planned on coming back and riding that evening. Well when I headed back it started pouring rain. I was defiantly not going to complain about that. I came home and watched training videos and started figuring out how to train the elements I am not familiar with. It was nice to get a game plan together. Then yesterday I headed to church and after I came home I waited on Danial as he made his way home from San Antonio. Needless to say after three days off I was starting to feel very disorganized. I have felt really scatter brained now that I have both mustangs. So I sat down and had a long chat with the Lord and I decided to set Magpie aside for a few days while I get Spade where I need him to be. I felt like I was only halfway there. I seriously need to start practicing my freestyle and maneuvers class. I have only worked on a few of my obstacles for the trail class. This week I will be able to work at least twice a day on Spade to get him all caught up.
Today I loaded up and took Spade to a covered pen so that we could work longer on his loping and circles. Thursday when I worked him he felt like he was running away at the lope. Sitting on it a few days seemed to help Spade because today I was able to get better shoulder control and better speed control. Even though we tried to run over Mary a few times, he ended up making some nice loping circles. He seems to know his leads very naturally. I just stuck a cue to his natural ability. Spade makes me smile because he really tries to do anything I ask. He learned quite a bit this morning so I took him home and let him rest for a few hours and after I worked a horse in training I pulled him back out to work on some of our freestyle stuff. He learned how to trot on the halter too. I seemed to forget that when I started him. After working on those things I loped around and did some harder maneuvers on him to show my mom how he was doing. Mom hasn't been out to see him in a really long time. I think that she was proud of how far we have come. Then it was to the log. I got off and desensitized him to the rope moving on the saddle. And drug the log from the ground for a while. I wanted to check and see what he would do if the rope hit him while he was dragging the log. So as I laid the heavy rope against his back legs he started kicking. I was shocked he hasn't done that in weeks. I stopped him and laid it against him again only in smaller movements this time. He then got to where he would let it wrap around him and he would pull the log through the dirt. I was super proud that it took no time to teach him that it was ok. Tomorrow I am headed to Moscow Texas to work him on the obstacles. That will show me what I need to work on more.
The one things I learned over the last few days is that there is time to be busy and then there is a time to relax. Someone once told me in bible college that when you find that you have to much on your plate the best thing to do is go to the trash and to scrape some of it off.  It is so true. I have always keep that in the back of my mind over the years. In no way does God want us to be overwhelmed. I have learned that if I am overwhelmed then more then likely I have placed that feeling on myself by scheduling to many things or taking on to many task at once. If we are overwhelmed it is impossible for us to be effective for the Kingdom. So many times we will take on things at home or in the church that we assume that God is wanting us to do. I know there have been times in my life I was in five different ministries, trying to hold down a job and thank God I was single at the time. I was running around half doing everything. And found that I wasn't getting anything done. That was when another friend gave me a huge revelation for life. She explained that even though I thought doing all these things for God was what God wanted, if He didn't call me or ask me to do those things then I was in disobedience. I was shocked by that statement. But that is also true. Have you ever had one of those horses that try too hard?? You don't ask them to move, in fact you just want them to stand still but they are constantly trying to do things you aren't asking for. It is one of the most annoying things. After I thought about that for a while I realized that I was doing to much. Way more then God was asking and I was overwhelmed. But who would fill my spot??? Then I started to understand that by doing things that I wasn't asked to do I was taking someone else's job and stealing their call and their blessing. God has a job for everyone, He is just waiting on the ones doing nothing to find their job and the one that do to much to get out of the way and only do what they are told.  Hopefully I haven't lost you yet. In a nutshell if you are overwhelmed, ask God what He wants from you. Your destiny, your call. Then leave all the other stuff to Him and let Him fill the holes. Everyone knows that I am at my church every time the doors are open, helping and doing whatever else I can. When I felt that God required me to do these two mustang competitions I had to back off from being so busy at the church. In most church peoples eyes that would look really similar to me backsliding. Which is the farthest from the truth. God's requirement for me currently is to give my best to these events. There is a plan to why God wants me in this. He has given Danial and I the plan. These mustangs are Phase 1. But you better believe once these competitions are over I will be back with my family at Liberty Church. It has been tough only seeing them on the weekends.