Tuesday Treasure - Cowboy Hearts

Good Morning Friends and Welcome to another edition of Tuesday Treasures!

In last week's post, I mentioned some of the treasures one can find hiking the trails out here on the Silver Spur Guest Ranch.

One of those treasures is a cowboy heart rock.

Well, wouldn't you know, we (staff and guests) were out armadillo hunting when another staff member found one of these rocks. She knew I'd been looking for one so she gave it to me.

If you're a Country Music fan, I'm sure you've heard the song, "Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys" by Willie Nelson in which he warns...."cause he's always alone even with someone he loves." I often wondered what that meant, but in asking about why these rocks were called "cowboy hearts" I heard it's because cowboys have hearts as hard as stone.

Now I'm sure that saying was perpetrated by angry or perhaps lonely women whose hearts had been broken by the cowboys they love. We always hear songs and stories about women leaving their rodeo cowboys for someone more stable, so I guess there may be some truth in that theory.

But I got to thinking.....

In Ezekiel  (11:19 & 36:26), God talks about removing our "heart of stone" and giving us a new spirit and a "heart of flesh" so I wonder, could these rocks be indicative of people whose stony hearts have been removed and replaced with "a new spirit and a heart of flesh?"

If you've known me very long you know my favorite story about the rock my husband gave to me when we were courting and how he said, "My love is like this rock, it's strong and solid, it'll never change, it'll last forever, and there's not another one like it in the world" and how I've placed that rock and framed quote in a shadow box. I've even said I wouldn't have traded that rock for a million roses!

I'm not sure if my next husband will be a cowboy or, (like my deceased one) a cop, but I do know like King David, he will have a "heart of flesh" and a "heart after God's heart."

IMW, I'm going to keep this cowboy heart rock to remind me to not let anything cause my heart to harden but to keep it tempered before the Lord.

Speaking of Tempered Hearts, check out book one in my 'Tempered' series set here in Bandera, TX available on Kindle & Nook!

Rancher Craig Harris and veterinarian Tamera Collins clash from the moment they meet. Innocence is pitted against arrogance as tempers rise and passions ignite to form a love as pure as the finest gold, fresh from the crucible and as strong as steel. Thrown together amid tragedy and unsated passion, Tamera and Craig share a strong attraction that neither accepts as the first stages of love. Torn between desire and dislike, they must make peace with their pasts and God in order to open up to the love blossoming between them. It is a love that nothing can destroy when they come to understand that only when hearts are tempered, minds are opened and wills are softened can man discern the will of God for his life.


[ Pssstttt.....Book 4 Tempered Joy and my short story, Lori's Redemption are about a rodeo cowboys!]