Pioneer Gumption

One side of my family comes from West Texas--my great-grandfather is buried in San Angelo--he was once the county seat there. The story goes that he refused to sleep indoors--he had been too used to the stars and the fresh night breezes while tending cattle.

My Daddy at 12-years-old

I don't know if you've ever had the chance to visit West Texas. It's the sort of landscape you'd expect John Wayne to be riding around in--plenty of tumble weeds, cactus, and the like. I spent a summer there--one spell of 110 degree (Fahrenheit) days lasted a whole week. It was 90 degrees at 4 a.m.

Nevertheless, my relatives thrived in that semi-arid desert. It was not an easy existence. They had to learn to endure heat long before there was any "central air". They dealt with snakes, scorpions, and mesquite.

A certain attitude existed in all of them. They didn't give up easily. There wasn't time to moan and complain, they just had to do what was before them. If they had a problem, they might mention it, but they didn't sit around in groups and regurgitate all over themselves for hours at a time.

I have been so glad for these stalwart examples. My Grandma used to say, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

So many times I have faced obstacles, so many times I have been tempted to hide under a rock. Once, when I was at my lowest, I even spoke with a Christian counselor. All she had to offer was a bag full of selfishness--that sort of thing would never have helped my pioneer ancestors, and it certainly didn't help me!

Pioneering is never about selfishness. Pioneers walk on even when their shoes wear out. They are risk-takers; they look to the prize, and not the rockiness of the trail!

I can't think of anything good that has come out of complaining and moaning. There have been some very nasty revolutions that came out of whining--people who are fomenting with negativity do not think rationally!

Whining makes God angry (yes, I used the word angry in association with God because it is in the Bible). He was so wroth that He wanted to wipe out all of the Israelites in the desert and start over when they continually complained about everything. I'm sure they had sessions when they gathered in circles and bemoaned their situation--they probably looked a lot like some of us today.

Joshua and Caleb were not whiners. They were ready to go. Sure, the Promised Land would take a bit of fighting, but God was with them, what more did they need? They wanted to move on--they had a different spirit.

After God caused their "stiff-necked" relatives to fall in the desert, Joshua and Caleb were still ready to go--even though they were 40 years older! In fact, Caleb's strength was not abated by those years in the desert. Even at the ripe old age of 80, he and his grandchildren were "well able to overtake" the giants in the land!

Faith is what pleases God. When we feel
like giving up, the only way to get through
it is by way of praise and thanksgiving!
This is the best way to train our mind and
emotions to agree with the Spirit of God.

"And we know that God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purposes." (Refer to: Romans 8:28)

 This is just one of the songs done by The Sons of the Pioneers, a famous cowboy group from days gone by.

Life and love—for the long-haul

The journey of life begins!

Character is not a course you can sign up for. There is no text capable of containing it; no set of lectures we can attend which will ensure its inculcation.

We learn it the hard way. We learn it in the trenches, with the bullets flying overhead. We live it when all hope is gone and everyone is looking to us for encouragement. We see it in those who have trudged through lives full of tragedy, and in persons who simply stuck in there, without any pomp or applause.

We live in a temporary world; this year's cell phone will end up in the landfill along with yesterday's diapers. If we don't like our surroundings, we move. If we don't like our friends, we replace them with new ones.

We jump from one religion to another, one relationship to another. Marriage is one of those things we regard with semi-seriousness; more permanent than an auto contract, but less permanent than a mortgage.

Until death we do part

The shameful truth is that, since we jump from one thing to another as soon as we feel our "happiness" is being compromised, we miss out on a very important blessing; we miss out on the only way to develop true character.

The marriages that have lasted are not the ones made up of perfect people; they are made up of people who didn't give up, even when they probably should have.

You can't learn the type of fortitude it takes to go the long-haul at any marriage convention. You won't find it in the office of a counselor. You need to find it in a deep, determined part of your heart—it's called commitment!

Somewhere in you there has to be the kind of grit that treads the path even when the light has gone, and the wind is howling, and you can hear the mocking laughter of demons, even the scornful echoes in your own aching soul.

People will not support you. They will want you to give in. Some will do it because they are genuinely concerned but misunderstand the true commitment of marriage. Others will do it because they are in misery and want your company. You can't stop to listen—no matter how much you'd like to steep yourself in self-pity, you have a battle to fight, and soldiers can't do combat with their guard down and their hands limp. You acquire this dedication directly—in a personal and unwavering relationship with Him.

Someday you will find yourself sitting with your comrade, your spouse, and relive the war stories of old. The scars will still be there, but they will be badges, not wounds. And you will be embracing each other as you look over the expanse of your life...

...and you will smile the smile of deep contentment, and sigh with sweet relief.

"It does not matter where you go

or what you have, all that matters 

is who you have beside you. Jesus!"

Disney—a mirror of the times?

Snow White

We own a number of the Disney classics, mostly the ones with damsels in distress (i.e., Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.,). We currently have seven girls in our home, five who are 11 and under.

We do not allow our girls to watch the more modern princess movies, and for good reason. Of course, not everything even in the older pictures is godly, but considering the slide from the earliest editions to the most recent releases, these films seem to record the slipping of our entire culture from one in which virtuous womanhood and manhood was truly celebrated to one in which virtue and integrity are derided or thought to be "archaic".

Here are a number of adjectives which describe the princess Snow White, released in 1937: kind, sweet, demur, serving, giving, caring, lovely, and good.

Disney's princess Cinderella, released in 1950, can be described as a kind, sweet, patient in tribulation, hopeful, cheerful, hard working, a lovely young woman.

The Prince meets Sleeping Beauty

In Sleeping Beauty, released in 1959, it is the prince which is showcased by being dashing, manly, strong, courageous, self-sacrificing, conquering evil, loyal, and committed.

Flash forward to the present—the heroines are rebellious, saucy, sarcastic, bossy, sexy, brazen, conniving, narcissistic, cynical, pagan, and strong. The heroes are clumsy, ignorant, sarcastic, lazy, stupid, and cowardly. There is a modern view of redemption in these films—ultimately, after being drug through all sorts of negative attitudes and behaviors.

After viewing Snow White, I feel cheered and somehow more hopeful. Although there is more humor in the newer films, the sweetness has vanished, and so has the hope. The earliest of the Disney princess movies was done in an America still influenced by the blessed Gospel of Christ. Altruism could be displayed on the screen and believed because similar individuals existed in real life, in the parents and grandparents who had weathered the Great Depression, then WWII and Korea with Biblical codes that caused us to be liberators from the hands and schemes of tyrants and mad men.

John Hancock

If the media of our age is any indication of the feelings and mores of our present society, then we should be indeed melancholy. What is there left to believe in, to hope for? The youth of today must become cynical in order to survive. There are no heroes left—we have purposely tarnished the memories of those we used to admire. It's no wonder we can elect a president with neither the skills nor the scruples to occupy the highest office in the land. In our hunger for a hero, in ignorance of what a real one really looks like, we fell for a traveling medicine-man, offering a panacea of "hope and change".

Jesus Christ is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life (refer to John 14:6). No matter how they have tried to rewrite history, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been the catalyst that brought mankind out of barbarism and has elevated both men and women. It is His supreme sacrifice and holy, surrendered life that gives us all hope. By the Holy Spirit we may each, imperfectly, reflect God the Father's Kingdom on earth.

Bonding time for mother & daughter

And, yes, there are still heroes and heroines—I meet them on the Internet every day, all over the world. We are standing when we have been told to bow. We are taking back our children and our homes. We are teaching them to be virtuous, moral, loyal and self-sacrificing people. We are changing the way we view scholarship and science. Just as Daniel and his companions astounded the eunuch by prospering because they lived by God's principles, we are astounding the watching world as God is blessing us in spite of the difficulties we each face.

More than the mere noise of voices, we speak with our very lives.