For five years Jerita has been praying, "Thank you, God, for the horse I'm going to get." Well, her Dad didn't want a horse and certainly I didn't. Her Dad had said, 'I'm going to ask God not to give you a horse until you are old enough to take care of it." "You'd better get all that junk out of my horse barn," she had said when we put the old stroller, storm windows, and other items in the shed under the hill. "I could take care of a horse anytime now."
We went to the auction that day and bought several things before we knew they had a horse to sell. We had been to hundreds of auctions- a favorite Saturday afternoon pastime-and nobody had auctioned off a horse before. The older children looked around as they always do. Soon Jerita came running. "Will you buy the horse, Dad?" Don shook his head. Later I took the smaller girls to buy something to drink. When I came back, Don stood there looking stunned. "What did you buy?" I demanded. " I just bought a horse," he said, as if he couldn't believe it. He pointed towards the truck and I hurried over to look.
"That thing? You bought that?" I accused. It certainly didn't look like a bargain. "It was going so cheap I couldn't help it. So I began bidding and now we have a horse." "I've seen bigger dogs."I said icily.
We hurried home, cleaned the junk out of the shed, raked away the debris, and rebuilt the fence around the shed. 'I told you we should have done this sooner," Jerita said. "You hush," I said. "Promise. Promise is her name," Don said," because God has promised to hear our prayers."
Around seven o'clock, Promise arrived in the truck. She looked even worse than I expected. She was long-haired, shaggy and frightened. I wondered why God would give a couple of city-born people with five small children a mean, biting, kicking, unbroken. shaggy Shetland pony. But as usual, the ways of God are beyond me.
Finally, after several minutes of rebellion, Promise went into the pen. The smaller children shouted with glee, and Jerita said, "Mother, isn't she perfect? She'll soon be big enough for me to ride, and she is small enough for all the kids to ride her without being afraid. It will be such fun to start fresh with her, teaching her everything, teaching her to trust me, to do what I want, to love me.Oh, Mom, I am so happy and thankful."
That was a month ago. All the children can ride Promise now. Jerita has taught Promise that she must not bite and kick. As she made Promise obey, Jerita saw the necessity of obedience, Constant love and brushing have turned Promise into a sleek and shiny pony, and Jerita has seen the transformation the love can bring.
I have had to apologize to God, asking his forgiveness, I know now that Promise was the very best that God could do.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page