Getting Along

I don't know if all of y'all are familiar with horses... but they don't usually get along with each other. In fact, they are not above kicking or biting their neighbor to prove a point about who's the most dominant! In the horse world it's called the pecking order and everybody has a place in that order. Don't believe me just watch while I fill up the water trough or call them in the barn for dinner time!

Recently we have added a new member to our heard and she was particularly bullied. On her first day at our farm all the horses ran her around and around and eventually straight into a barbed wire fence! Can you believe the other horses walked back to barn proud as if saying we showed her who's the boss! Thankfully she walked away from the incident with only a few stitches in her forehead.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I got to the farm this afternoon and everything was really, really quiet. The horses were lounging in the shade of some pines and were being lazy on this warm, sunny day. Well, this friendliness can't last! I call them to the barn for their supper and still nothing! They just stroll down to me as if they were just enjoying their day in the sunshine. When they got to the barn: Nada! They all walked in by their exact pecking order, no complaints, and went straight to their stall. No one gave the new mare any trouble, which was a first for this group. OK, we'll see what happens when I give them their feed. Now, Snap (this loony, blue eyed paint) always gives me this crazy head shaking when I feed the others first; but of course today he's propped back in his stall waiting patiently for my to get to his stall! Even when I let them out they just strolled down to the lake in a group as together and casual as ever! What has happened to my horses?

Psalm133:1

How wonderful, how beautiful when brothers and sisters get along!

It is so terrible that I think chaos and disunity is normal, not just in the horses life but my personal life. How many times have I thought the newest "drama" in my life was cool and exciting? And what gives TV shows their high ratings? When things go wrong and the main characters are fighting.

This is the exact opposite of what we should be striving for. We should make it a daily habit to get along with everyone and create harmony not discord. Imagine how much our lives would be easier if we said no to the gossip that divides friends, no to having a bad attitude that get's everybody down, and yes to building each other up and relationships that are strong and unified! That is my goal this week and I hope you can make it your own as well.