From the Home Place

December 10, 2025

Looks like we are jumping into two more days of stiff breeze. I reckon when the wind gusts are over 100 miles an hour, the wind is officially blowing! But with three days of strong wind, we will really appreciate it when the wind comes back down to 12-15 miles per hour. Sometimes our Lord sends us some tough stuff, so we better appreciate when the better shows up.

Here we are looking straight into the eyes of the end of 2025. I remember when the year 2000 was on the horizon, the media did all they could do to convince us that life was going to pretty much end because of computer failures. Can you believe it, the media hype was wrong, again.

Oh for sure, the end of life as we know it could come at any moment, but I don’t think the media is going to have much to say about it until after the fact. I wonder how they will account for thousands of Christ-followers leaving the earth all at once???

Well anyway, for today I would like to visit with you about something that is very dear to my heart. Now let’s get it straight, I’m not trying to make you follow my agenda, I just want to share some feelings with you and then perhaps ask some questions.

I miss having a horse! All of my life I have had some kind of a horse (remember, a donkey was my first one), up until 2016. In 2011 we moved to a different location to help a freshly wounded church find healing in their life with Jesus. By God’s amazing grace, they found their healing and are impacting their community with the Gospel message even today! While we were at that location, the Holy Spirit lead me into a new ministry, helping men determine what it meant to be “a man of God.”

To better facilitate this ministry, we moved back to Wyoming in 2016. Because we couldn’t afford enough land to keep my horses, they all went to new homes, and I have not had a horse since. I must admit, there is seldom a day goes by that I don’t think of how awesome it would be to have a horse friend once again. But due to the fact that we now live in town, I reckon that such a yearning is nonsense.

So let’s shift gears now and take a good gander at the little feller in the photo below with his prancing steed. Looking at this picture, it is easy to “feel” the love between a feller and his horse. As Teddy stated, “The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man.” I miss those relationships I’ve been blessed to have with good horses.

Not only is it good to have “chores” to do, it is also good to have a friend to visit with who doesn’t talk back. They just listen and love. Perhaps we should have a little more “horse sense” and a few less opinions. I reckon most folks would be blessed if I was to just listen and love.

And then there is the freedom from life the moment you step a foot into the stirrup, swing your leg across the back of a horse and ride. You don’t even have to have a job to do when riding, just get on and ride away from, so that when you return there is a feeling of refreshment. An abiity to step back into reality with a better attitude.

Well anyway, now the question: “What is it that helps you improve your attitude?” Asked a different way, “How do you get your attitude adjustment?” Perhaps it’s at the demand of a spouse, perhaps at the suggestion of a child, perhaps when you just feel “a little off? However the suggestion show up, people or circumstances can suggest that we change an attitude, but how we get said attitude adjustment is my question for today? For me, stepping on a horse and spending time in the saddle is the best attitude adjustment method I have ever experienced.

But now, with no horse, I just have a crummy attitude all of the time – I sure enough hope not! I have found that the Holy Spirit is also really good at giving an attitude adjustment. His conviction, or His encouragement are both great tools to help us realize the need of changing a poor attitude.

So, if you are blessed to have a horse, go for a good ride and return with a good attitude about your life. But if you don’t have a horse, allow the Holy Spirt to help you in that department. Oh and by the way, the Holy Spirit also listens and loves, but He doesn’t stop there. The Holy Spirit listens and loves and then He empowers us with the ability to make needed adjustments!

Allowing the Spirit free “rein” with you, Neal