ReSaddle Up Your Horse To Climb Every Mountain and Time To Defeat Goliaths in Your Life

Climb "Every" Mountain"

When I was a little girl my mother took me to the movies to see the Sound of Music with Julie Andrews.  I came home and sang the songs from the movie for several years of my childhood life. 

My daughters were in an elementary school talent show and I played the guitar for them and they sang the song, “Climb Every Mountain.” I have climbed many mountains in life to obtain my dreams.  I went to college late starting in my 30's with four small children after a divorce to obtain an Associate’s degree which helped obtain my current job and have one class to finish a Bachelor’s degree,  built my dream house with my husband 14 years ago, raised five children with all of them attending a higher education institution, went on dream vacations to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia, and had a good marriage for 14 years.  I like the lyrics to that song, because I have had to climb several mountains to get the most out of life.   I know what makes me happy in life.  Each person has to find what makes them happy.  If I try one mountain and if the path is not smooth enough, than I go to another mountain.

Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Psalm 27:11

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16
The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.  Isaiah 26:7

I’ve also climbed many mountains spiritually as far as being in a Christian full-time evangelistic ministry as a younger adult, traveling around the country off and on for seven years in a music ministry at different churches, being involved in children's ministry at church, women’s prison, nursing homes, and sharing the gospel door-to-door and on the streets throughout my life.  Recently since I've been single hosting around nine single parties at my house and being on a worship team for two years for a single's group.

Have you climbed every possible mountain in your life?  How about climbing impossible mountains?  Recently I climbed a mountain of losing 40 lbs. of weight (that is a continual battle of the bulge in eating right) by changing my eating habbits, bungy jumping was always a dream of mine that I did in 2009, and overcoming claustrophobia to obtain a scuba diving certification.  

I still have several mountains to climb and I may not be able to conquer everything on my own as far as what the desires of my heart are in life.  After my husband passed I have had problems with getting a good night sleep many nights.  I never had a problem with sleep when I was married.  I know it was the trauma of losing my security blanket taken with him being next to me at night like Linus in the cartoon Peanuts had a security blanket or the movie, Sleepless in Seattle with actor Tom Hanks.   It was nice having a security blanket in life.  When I did not like one of my jobs one time and it was not what I expected, my husband said, “Go ahead and quit.”  I walked in and shook the man’s hand and told him I quit.  I had the security blanket of my husband’s income to fall back on that we did not need my income.   I don’t have that security blanket now.  Most younger widows and divorced women with children don’t have the security blanket of being able to stay at home during a period of grief.  Not if you have a family to take care of, or children you are helping through college.  I am conquering the giant of loneliness where it does not bother me to be alone as much.

Climb Every Mountain

Climb every mountain, search high and low
Follow every byway, every path you know.
Climb every mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream!

A dream that will need
all the love you can give,
Every day of your life
for as long as you live.

Climb every mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream!

 

ReSaddle Up Your Horse….The Thrill of a Life Time Defeating a Goliath in Life

I am a person who likes thrills in life.   That 436 feet bungy jump in New Zealand October 2009 was a thrill of my lifetime.  After I jumped the Lord showed me that I first conquered the fear of heights when my mother had me take diving lessons at Westwood Country Club when I was around six years old and I dove off the high dive.  The correct way to bungy jump is a swan dive or you can hurt your back.  Marriage is like bungy jumping, you need a comfortable harness (be comfortable with that person), a cord to match your body type (physical attraction) and then you take the leap of faith trusting in the two.  Some people got the bungy cord tangled in life and others had a thrill of their life time.

When I got thrown from my horse in life (a good marriage), I was at the peak/thrill of my marriage.  I remember the good times, not the bad.  I've been through a period of time in having the wind knocked out of me, but I went to church the next day, back to work in two weeks, to college the next week, and in a couple of months to a Christian single’s social.  I was like a zombie many times, but I did the best actions possible to heal and that was “getting back in the saddle of life.”  I resisted critics in my life of what I “should be doing” in trying to drag me down like a lobster, and got back up, after being thrown off my horse.  At times, I would take a break or a breather and God puts us on breaks at times, but I kept going on in life the best I could.  My husband and I were actively socially in life and I stayed active.  My social life did not cease to exist, because my spouse passed away.

When you get the “wind knocked out of you” you have to get back out and drive the car if you were in a bad car crash, my brother never played football in college when he got the wind knocked out because it was the last game of high school when it happened so he was too fearful, and when you lose a husband or wife to divorce or death, you get back out and socialize and date.  I tried to get back in the saddle with someone seriously about 1-l/2 years ago, but found that horse had too many behavioral problems, and I was trying to replace my horse with the same type of horse in life rather than get a totally new horse. 

My former sister-in-law had horses and she had a horse that bit and kicked other horses and when she sold the horse to someone, the person who bought it asked if she could return the horse because of it’s behavior problems.  I find that people are a lot like horses as far as they can have behavior problems.  Once you bought into the horse (the relationship) you can get stuck with the horse.  I like a horse (relationship) without too many behavior problems.

If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:15

When my daughters and I were in Australia and we went horseback riding in the ocean, I asked them to put me on the most "spirited" horse.  It's because I don't like a horse that is lazy and wants to eat all the time.  When I was a child, my sister's husband had horses and one of the horses took off with me bucking to run back to the barn to eat.  It's because the horse did not like exercise.  It was lazy and wanting to eat all the time.  Same way with a guy, I like a guy who has spirit and likes activities.  My all-time favorite horse I road was a horse that liked to take off running in a corn field.  The people warned me that the horse liked to run and sure enough the horse took off galloping with me through the corn field.  I like a horse with stamina (like Joshua and Caleb) and a sense of adventure.  Just like that horse my husband was a runner.  Run here and run there and I had to keep up with him.  I like a runner.

As a Christian, climbing mountains are sincerely or diligently seeking God for a mate, job, church, a house and our needs in life.  Diligently seeking God for the ministry he wants us to do in serving others.  Those who “diligently seek God” will find him.  When we find God, than He will meet all our needs according to his riches in glory, not according to this world.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely (diligently) seek him.  Hebrews 11:6

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Luke 11:9

The longer you wait and nurse your fears, the larger Goliath will grow in your life.  You will keep making excuses on how you don’t have time for a relationship.  There is no perfect time for a relationship.  I had four little children, was in college for only one year taking two classes a semester, was a home owner when I met my husband that was a lot of stress to start dating.   I just talked to a divorced Christian man recently who told me he was afraid of women and I gave him this scripture:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

Because I prolonged an advanced Math class in my life and did not take Math straight out of high school, the class has become a bigger and bigger giant in my life.   This semester I had  pressure from job overtime and I did not get my goals accomplished during the holidays.   I’ve let a giant get bigger and bigger to the point it’s practically impossible in my mind to conquer it.  It’s because I lost the momentum to conquer the giant.  Staying in college and staying continually in learning Math helps keep the momentum going.  Once you lose the momentum in life than it is harder fighting the battle.  Same way with a relationship.  If a person is divorced for many years, I look to see if they had any serious relationships since the time of their divorce, because then it will be harder for them to get back in the saddle and make a commitment.  They will have lost their momentum to succeed in a relationship.  How did David conquer Goliath?  He had his momentum going he first killed a bear and lion.

The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." 1 Samuel 17:3

When David was running from his fear of Saul and sitting in a cave than he started forgetting that God was on his side.  He finally had to come out of his cave.  When you start getting weak in faith than you have to get encouragement again.  The other question is how bad do you want to climb the mountain?  Is it worth bettering yourself and going to college to get a better job to climb the mountain?  Will you sacrifice your social life to go to college for a better job? 

One of my other problems in life is I don't always want to "pay the price" to get my dreams.  There is usually a price in getting our dreams.  College has taken it's toll on my time for my social life, family life and sometimes my walk with God.  I believe God put the dream/vision in my heart to go to college or a ministry, but then the enemy can twist it so you become so busy like Martha and you get caught up in the cares of getting homework done.  God gives us the power to get wealth.

But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. Duet. 8:18

When I tried to have a social life my grades would drop down it's because I have a full time job and other responsibilities.  It's a choice I made in going into Christian full-time ministry and did not go to college in my 20's before I had many children.  When I got remarried, I chose to not put the total responsibility of a former ex-husband's children on my new husband from a lack of child support.   A price in getting your dreams may be losing weight and exercising.   Not only for the sake of having better health in your life, but being more attractive to a potential spouse.  If we seek to let God balance out our lives more, than we can juggle more stresses in life.

I know that usually when I meet a divorced man he may be weak in his faith for a good marriage.  Not with a person who has lost a spouse from a good relationship.  They have a fresh vision inside their heart of a good relationship.  Usually, single never married have faith for a good relationship so they are more appealing to me.  What happens to a lot of people in a bad marriage is by the time they go to marriage counseling one person has lost the vision for a successful marriage so it’s like the other person is trying to resurrect a “dead horse.”

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.  Romans 14:1

There is no point in disputing with someone who had a bad marriage about the benefits and good points of marriage.  Like in the above scripture, they have to get a vision from God since it was damaged by experience.  The problem with experience is that Satan moves in the realm of experience sometimes.  My husband got an “F” in his first marriage, but he was determined not to let our marriage fail.  It’s because my husband was successful in high school and college and my husband did not see himself as a failure. 

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7

Even when I had doubts and “wanted to throw in the towel” in raising step-children, he would say over and over, “I know God put us together.”   I believe it’s because we both had parents that never threw in the towel.  Our parents were both married over 50 years.  The vision for a successful marriage was handed to us by our parents. If you don’t have that in your life than you get a vision from God.  I am not the perfect parent, but I’ve given my children the blessing of the vision of a successful marriage in life.  How do we get a vision or revelation for our life from God?  By getting in his word.  Letting God’s word dwell in us richly.  God can heal and change our heart to put ideas and visions to be successful in life.

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16

We don’t want to be a life time loser when it comes to being a lover and a giver in life.   I meet too many people who are takers in life.  We can lose at simple things that are not as important, i.e., a card game, a college exam, a piece of jewelry.  My friend lost her ring in my car this week and we had to get a flashlight to find it since it fell between the seats.  That was a ring that belonged to her mother.   

Than there are devastating losses in life which include losing our breasts to cancer, the ability to bear children, loss of being able to conceive at menopause, a husband/wife through death or divorce, a child to death or drugs, family members to cancer, etc.   I hate losing.  I remember crying when I was five years old when the neighbor boy beat me at running because he was faster than me.  A year before that I could run faster than he did.  I remember how much I cried when I had two miscarriages and lost a baby.  We all go through losses in life and the larger losses can be a more devastating blows.  I go to single socials and laugh and try to have fun, but I still have a certain emptiness inside in being a loser in life. 

Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains. - Proverbs 14:13. 

So how do we climb the mountain?  This includes many people never married because they may be afraid to make the bungy jump leap of faith.  I believe it is related to lifting up Jesus in our lives as he was lifted up on the cross.  When Jesus is lifted up in our life, “he will draw all men to himself.”  I asked the Lord about people who have suffered abuse in their childhood at the hand of evil parents and he gave me the scripture that there is healing in his wings...healing at the cross.

But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. John 12:32

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Malachi 4:2

To come out of the grief-stricken or bitterness of an ex-spouse or stronghold of fears, it takes a special healing from God.  How do we get a special healing from God?  Everyone personally must reach out to Jesus to get what we need in life.  As the woman who was tormented and bound by Satan with an issue of blood (she was unclean) for 12 years she had to press her way through a crowd to get to Jesus.  I’ve pressed on and like the woman through a crowd and touched Jesus in my life time and time again.  

Every person in life has to touch the hem of Jesus garment personally to get what they want.  They can’t let the crowd hold them back of what people think or say.  They can’t let other’s keep them in hell or torment like the woman was tormented.  Whether it is salvation, healing, a marriage relationship, or finances, Jesus is the provider.  I don’t care what Jesus has done for you.  I want Jesus to bless me.  Like the woman with the issue of blood.  She was looking for Jesus’ blessing.  She risked her life in going through that crowd because of an issue of blood she was unclean.  Same way, we get through a crowd of negativity of what others think we are doing wrong or right about life and you climb whatever mountain is yours to touch Jesus.

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.  When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"…... He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Mark 5:25-34

The woman “pressed” through the crowd to get what she wanted.  The below scriptures talk about pressing on.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. V. 12 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.   Philip 3:14

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, Hebrews 6:1

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. Hebrews 4:11

It's been an interesting three years because I've had to face several giants at the weakess time emotionally in my life and one was going to court with my ex-husband since I could not work out an agreement for my daughter's college.  Through prayer, I was able to face the giant and come out victorious.  I may fail God at times to face every giant like Saul, but God does not fail me.  I don't like negative things that happen in my life, like I don't want to eat spinach, but like Popeye the sailor man, spinach made him stronger.  There are reasons to things that happen in life, and God knows the reason.  I like reasoning with the Lord.   I don't get all the answers I want in life at the time I want them, and than some answers God reveals to them by his spirit in my inner man when I ask Him.

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 1 Peter 2:10
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5

I hate driving in my car alone to single Bible studies or church by myself, especially they are clear across town.  The only services I like attending have to be on the westside where I live and there are no regular single groups on the westside of town currently.   Tonight I had two choices to go to single events one either on the far southside or the far northside and I chose not to go to either because of the weather.  When I have a friend who wants to go it encourages me.  I know a widow who refuses to travel without another person in a plane because she traveled for 25 years with her husband.  It's the security blanket I was talking about in having a companion.

Everytime I get in the car to go to any single's social or church, I am constantly reminded that I have lost my husband who was in the car with me for 14 years.  Tonight I got in a conversation thanking my deceased spouse for listening to "his head and not his heart" when it comes to ignoring his symptoms the week before he died.  I look at it like Hezekiah who got 15 years added to his life after his warning from Isaiah.  But that is my "reasoning."  God  reminded me of a dream that I had how He is driving my SUV and that "He is in charge of my life."   We have the mind of Christ and I'm wanting my thoughts to be more God's thoughts.  I've not arrived there yet when it comes to negative things that happen to me.   I try to reason with the Lord.  Many times there seems to be "no rhyme or reason to things that happen in life."

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8

The Great Adventure By Steven Curtis Chapman

Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for

We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams

Yeah... oh saddle up your horses... come on get ready to ride