Lessons in Leading

So, Dad and I are breaking Spinelli.  Breaking a calf to lead is something neither one of us has done since I was in high school.  Cinnamon still kind of remembers what to do.  She was a little frustrating and tried to drag me around the lot a time or two.  I do consider myself a solid individual and pretty capable of holding my own, but it was hard to hold that momma still!

The typical process starts with frustration with catching the calf.  Sometimes it's easy, but sometimes they have plenty of spunk, like Cinn or Spinelli.  Then comes the halter frustration.  The halters that we use are single strand and sizes can be adjusted through the various loops.  I held Cinn while Dad's frustration grew because the halter was fine the other day and then today it was all backwards and all sorts of upside down.  Once you get their face in the halter, the struggle begins.  Spinelli fought and held back with all of her little calf might.  Her legs locked straight, she held her head back as much as she could, and her little tail was moving back and forth out of her frustration.

Sometimes, you tie them to a gate or post and leave them to fight for a while.  Sometimes, you slowly apply the pressure for them to take the step forward.  With Spinelli, we also have the advantage of Cinn being halter-broke.  I can walk Cinn a little ways ahead, and Dad can lure Spinelli if he's pointed toward her mother.

As I was participating and watching Spinelli's little lesson, it got me thinking about how God leads us.  We are the animal in the halter.  He is the one who is being patient as we learn our lessons.  He is the one leading us in the way we should go.  He is the one who provides encouragement and instruction.

At the beginning of our relationship with Him, many of us don't know how to trust Him completely and we don't realize how much easier life is if we would just follow where He leads.  Then, eventually, we realize that following along is a lot easier to do than holding back with all your might.  Following along gets you closer to Him.  Just like when Spinelli starts to follow along, she will become more tame.  Sometimes, no matter how long they've known what to do, they still have moments where they decide to go against you.  Cinn tried to take off from me during this lesson.  Isn't this how we are sometimes?  We know the good life and what it's like to follow while God leads.  We know His instruction.  But then we decide to go our own way for a little bit and we try to buck the halter.

Dad told me a story one time about some guys that used to show cattle.  He said they basically waited until the last minute to work with their livestock.  Instead of getting out there and pulling their cattle, they tied them to the tractor and broke them quickly.  I'm not really sure how it turned out for them in the end, but that's a lot of pressure to be used!

I feel like I'm at the point in my life where I am pretty good at knowing a lot of lessons.  Sometimes, I need those lessons to be taught more than once.  I also know there are still many lessons to be learned.  I will never be done learning these lessons, just like little Spinelli will be learning her lessons for as long as she's on our farm!  :)