What She Said Part 13, Week 6 - Move On
Sharon W. Betters
TODAY’S TREASURE
Dear Friends,
I am thrilled to introduce you to our guest writer, Heidi Nequist. Not only does she bring inspiring and practical scriptural truths to this week’s devotional, but Heidi is also our daughter. As a preacher’s kid, Heidi has seen and experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly of church life in ways that broke her but ultimately drove her to Jesus. Her leadership skills were evident from the time she was a young girl.
From serving as a leader in the church nursery to teaching women’s Bible studies to event planning. Her love for young people led her into multiple ministries designed to help them walk by faith. Along with building a life with her husband, Greg, parenting five children (our amazing grandchildren), and now loving life with her granddaughter (our amazing great-granddaughter), Heidi is a business-woman (Realtor) and proud founder of Muddy Boots Horse Farm and Rescue, a safe place for rescued horses to heal and enjoy life.
Throughout this week’s devotions, Heidi introduces you to one of their most broken-down horses and shares how teaching Apollo to trust her and learn obedience is a poignant picture of God’s love, patience, and grace extended to us, especially when we feel rejected and alone.
In Saturday’s devotional, Heidi introduces us to Moose and how his obstinance is helping her learn what it means to “move on” in obedience in the context of resting in God’s promise to “fight our battles for us – we have only to be still”.
Tell the children of Israel to move on.
Exodus 14:15
“We had just saddled up the horses for our first trail ride at a horse camping weekend. We were all so excited about the weekend, which was a first for us; a campground full of horses and their owners, everyone camping, coming together for meals and live music, and lots of horseback riding through beautiful trails.
The horses were tacked up, we had our route planned out, and we got up on the horses to leave. We got ready to head out and realized Danielle’s horse wasn’t going to move. Moose had decided to plant himself, and he wasn’t planning on leaving that area. Ever. He was not going to move.
Danielle, my daughter, tried everything to get him to walk on. In this case, my daughter and the horse were not communicating well at all. Danielle knew she had to get him to listen to her, but the signals became confusing for both Danielle and Moose.
Because of some bucking issues, Danielle was working to keep his head up so that he couldn’t buck her off. She decided if she was going down, so was he. It was like watching it happen in slow motion. The two of them together were so graceful as they fell back and to the side, and I swear Moose made a conscious decision to land gently on top of Danielle because he didn’t know where else to fall but did not want to hurt her.
Of course, we jumped off the horses and went to help her. We took some time to walk Moose around, and Danielle gathered herself, to her credit, she got right back on, and we went on a trail ride. And this time, Moose did what he was told, and he WALKED ON.
Where do I even start with the parallels between this incident and my spiritual walk?”
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Friends, I welcome you to this week’s Daily Treasure, knowing the Lord has prepared
a bountiful table for you. I invite you to taste and see that He is good.
Treasured by Him,
Sharon
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Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.