[ampaterry]

I read about a method that some cowpunchers used to bring some of those wild steers back onto the ranch. They would take along a burro. Now a big three-year old steer that's been running loose on the range is a tough customer to handle. They would get a rope on the steer and then they would tie him neck and neck, right up close, to the burro and let them go.

At first, the burro would have a bad time. The steer would throw him all over the place. He would bang him against trees, rocks, into bushes. Time after time they both would go down. But there was one great difference between the burro and the steer. The burro had one thought in his mind. He wanted to go home. And no matter how often the steer threw him every time the burro got to his feet he took a step nearer the corral. This went on and on. After about a week, the burro would show up at the corral. He had with him the tamest and sorriest-looking steer you ever saw.

The thought of this little burro being overpowered and abused can encourage us when we find ourselves struggling with difficult people. We often feel tied, "right up close". If we could only have some slack! But our God had a purpose in tying us to that person. He knows that our faith will enable us to hang in there. No matter how often we are thrown, our stubborn Christian attitude will enable us to get to our feet and take a step nearer to God's solution! We may be abused and hurt. But just think of the tremendous outcome -- that we might eventually stand before the throne of our Savior, tied to that special person who has now been brought to Christ! God's techniques, after baffling us for so long, will then make sense!

Philippians 3:12-14(NKJV);
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

May God richly bless you, and whatever wild and unruly person you find yourself tied to.