One dictionary description of a spur is a pointed implement secured to a rider’s heel to urge the horse by its pressure.  It can also be used as being spurred to action, a stimulus, a hasty impulse prompted by the occasion, or to drive or hasten.  

Being a city girl married to a cowboy for the last 58 years, I was very familiar with spurs.  My husband and both daughters rodeoed for years and we always had spurs around the house.  I had a pair of spurs too, but I was never a good rider and didn’t have much confidence in my riding skills.  I was afraid to go too fast, so I hardly ever used spurs for speed; but I did need them to spur my horse on through difficult areas and over suspicious objects in our path.  They were useful in places where I knew there was no danger but my horse was fearful.  

As I look back over the years of my life I can see where God spurred me on when I lacked confidence, and guided me over difficult paths our life took. He has helped me through difficult circumstances, but He has also presented tremendous opportunities that I never expected to be able to handle.  

During the ‘80s we had a beautiful home outside of town, Toby’s business as a salesman in the western industry was doing great, and we decided to buy the 100 acre piece of irrigated farmland behind our house—at 18% interest—because land was such a good investment.  Our other investments were doing beautifully and would assure us the ability to have that land farmed and be secure.  You saw that one coming didn’t you?  Of course, that is when the economy tanked and everything changed and our lives changed drastically.  The western industry took a dive, all our investments as well, and we were faced with a huge balloon payment we couldn’t pay.  We lost everything and had to work hard to pay off farm debts and suffered the loss so we wouldn’t have to face bankruptcy.  

Toby took a job as a sales manager for a western company and I worked 3 jobs in Torrington and we got all our loans paid off but still barely had an income.  I’m an artist, and God prompted me to use my paints to paint scenes on sweatshirts for family and friends for birthdays.  A store owner asked me to make some for her to sell in her store, and it eventually led to connecting to a salesman who wanted to carry my line of “wearable art.”  He sold my clothing to retail stores all across America.  God kept “spurring me on to create new designs and eventually I had coats, several types of shirts and also coordinates in my line.  The Excaliber, Harrah’s, and Sam’s in Vegas and Tahoe, as well as over 400 stores ordered regularly and we were able to save enough money to buy a house again after exactly 7 years.  God made it obvious all along the way that He was guiding us and spurring us on in everything we did.  

I had been offered the opportunity to design a line of coordinates for a large western company in the ‘70s, but didn’t have the confidence to commit to something that big at that time in my life.  But God knew He could spur me on when it was necessary.  He made it obvious that He would get us both headed in the right direction to work out the problems we faced and He used the gifts we already had and took us in a different direction as we trusted Him for the results.  

We don’t know what is ahead for the coming year, but we do know Who holds us in His hands.  We are familiar with the nudges He gives us, the spur of action He gives us to go in a certain way, even if it is unfamiliar to us and we don’t have confidence.  He is our confidence!  He has already prepared us, He will guide us, He will help us, He can see what is ahead and He will get us over the obstacles if we LISTEN to Him.  

Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” 

Hebrews 10:35 “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.”  Hebrews 2:13 ”I will put my trust in Him.”