This is the Way...

This is the way the ladies ride

Jiggety jog, jiggety jog

This is the way the ladies ride

Jiggety jiggety jog

This is the way the gentlemen ride

Gallop and trot, gallop and trot

This is the way the gentlemen ride

Gallop and gallop and trot

This is the way the farmer rides

Hobbledy hoy, hobbledy hoy

This is the way the farmer rides

Hobbledy hobbledy hoy

This is the way the cowboy rides

Giddy up, giddy up

This is the way the cowboy rides

Giddy giddy up

I remember back to when I was a small girl and my father would hold me on his knee singing a little rhyme about this is the way a lady rides... bouncing his knees appropriate to the words he spoke. I remember loving it! Well, I never learned the little rhyme, but I remember loving horses and at one time I thought I would like to have one, but I never pursued it. I never rode a horse until I was probably about 16. I remember taking my little sister along with me, letting her ride in the saddle in front of me, on her first horse ride. She loved it!!! She soon developed a deep love for horses and in her teen years she pursued it. All these years later, she now owns so many that my children, who also love horses, are given frequent opportunities to experience horse riding. Since we live in such close proximity to my sister, we are able to enjoy spending time with her and her horses frequently. Every year Beth organizes a Young Women activity where they come and ride horses.

This year was interesting because we have two girls who are afflicted with downs syndrome. While they love horses, they both found it quite a challenge to muster up enough courage to climb aboard such a tall animal. In fact, the one little girl flat out refused to try. It was just too scary. The girl who got on the horse was immediately unsure of this new feeling, being so high and the ride being so 'up and down' she got down after the horse took only just a few steps. My girls, having been around horses so much were in their element as you can see from the pictures.

Life is much like riding horses. Life requires us to do hard things, face changes and challenges, and sometimes the ride is filled with lots of ups and downs. However, as we spiritually persevere, pretty soon our stamina is increased and as we look back, the hard things no longer seem so extremely difficult. That means we were strengthened as we learned more about ourselves. Instead of just being able to walk, we are able to consider the prospect of trotting just a little, and as we learn and grow before we know it we can confidently gallop. Now I don't recommend galloping recklessly through life, but, that confidence that comes from consistently doing what we know is right, gives us a great reserve of spiritual strength so that when we are called upon to face yet another challenge we have the spiritual resources to endure. Galloping is an equivalent to that gaining of confidence.

 45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. (D&C 121)

What a joy it is to know that through exercising faith, extending love, and being virtuous and clean, we will be able to have the spiritual confidence  promised in the above scripture. May our spirits soar as though flying through the air on a galloping horse!