Bumps and Slumps- Abbea Farris

This summer the Father had a different plan for me. I started the summer off by entering the same rodeos as I always do and planned on entering more as the summer continued. They all started off great until we hit a bump in the road. My good horse injured itself causing me to enter into what most people call “a slump.” I decided to take some time off and get some good practice in, improve my fundamentals, work, and spend time with my family before I left for college again in the fall. During tough times like this, I just have to remember that everyone goes through slumps in life and to keep my head on straight. Hoping I have worked out some of these problems, I will be going to a few rodeos the last month of summer! I am rodeo hungry and ready to go! 

This summer has also been filled with work and family. I am working construction 35 miles north of town. I have a lot of family that live out there, so it has been very convenient being able to see them more this summer. Every Sunday I’m home, I take my grandpa to church. With work being so busy during the week, then going straight to roping at night, a lot of my time is taken. So you could say, Sundays are our grandpa-granddaughter days. After church, we go out to lunch and simply spend time with one another.

This summer has been difficult at times, but I continue to keep my head up and remember the important things in life. Family is very important, so it has been nice to be catching up with them. But I cannot wait to be competing in rodeos again! No matter what, God is great, and I am blessed and thankful for another day.      

“All things are possible if you believe.” Mark 9:23

A Time for Everything - Bobbi York

I find myself asking “Why me?” a lot. I will humbly admit, I sometimes find that life has given me the short end of the stick. Just like most people, I want life to go my way 100% of the time. But, life never goes that way. I strongly believe that we all have a time in our lives where our entire outlook on life changes. I have had this moment and now I wish I had a tale of an epic rodeo saga where I bravely looked into the sunset finally realizing that this was my purpose in life. But this is not the case. Frankly, this had nothing to do with rodeo and I was at my weakest.

At the beginning of the summer, I would’ve been fine with never roping another day in my life. I had decided that rodeo was petty and selfish. But God had another plan for me. June 12, 2015. I was sitting at the Wyoming High School State finals and a girl on the rodeo team texted me saying…

                Someone in our team got killed in a car accident.

As one can imagine, I began to panic. I ran through every person on my team while I waited for the text telling me who it was. Eventually, I just called her.

Tyler. The Tyler I had known since freshman year. The Tyler that was always there. My next reaction was to call him. Nothing. Again I found myself asking “Why?”, but instead this time I was asking “Why God?” Months pass and eventually I was asked to write this blog on my summer rodeo season, that I wasn’t really doing, and on a God that I was even sure cared.

Slowly, I began to listen to God. I used to think God had never been there or he was testing me. But actually, God was always there for me, I just needed to listen. My dilemma was continuously questioning God about taking Tyler. To be honest, I’m not sure I will ever understand why such an amazing person had to leave us so soon. But to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

In July, I was able to get to see Lily and Sarah at the High School National Finals. When I was there I felt the rush and intensity of it all. From that point on, I knew this is what I wanted. I was driven. I roped every chance and when I wasn’t roping, I was thinking about roping. I knew that I wanted to be there next year and I was going to do everything in my power to get there. But roping is not my purpose; Rodeo is not my purpose.  As it says in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” My purpose is to spread the word of God, living each day to his Glory. Now by no means do I do this all the time and I have my low points. But through everything I have come to realize that I cannot get through this life without God and I try my best to live like he wants us all to.

Maybe Tyler’s purpose was to show us how to be kind and love one another and his death was to make us all realize we need to be kind and love one another. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Tyler. Think about his smile, his humor, his kindness. But thanks to him I have been able to see a glimpse of the way the Lord wants us all to be. Tyler, like all of us, wasn’t perfect. But he was by far the best person I’ve known on this earth.

As my summer comes to an end, I have won the Wyoming State Fair Breakaway Roping, bought a new rope horse for college, grown closer to the Lord, and am trying to make him proud each day. And each day I think of my friend that has given me so much.