Aligned with Christ by Toni Sorensen

Author:Toni Sorensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christ, LDS, Savior, Living, Align, Grace, Worth, Spiritual, Progress, Jesus, Faith, Atonement, Gospel, Life, Uprightness, Pursue
Publisher: Covenant Communications, Inc.
Published: 2018-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Wield Words Carefully

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak,

they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

For by thy words thou shalt be justified,

and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

—Matthew 12:36–37

When I was twelve years old, I bought an unbroken horse. I didn’t have much money, but the horse didn’t cost a lot. He was a two-year-old gelding, a brown and white pinto pony with a tendency to be skittish. None of that mattered to me. I had a horse!

I named him Freckles, and that very first day I gave my heart to him.

Too bad Freckles didn’t feel the same about me.

He flung his head around and tried to bite me when I brushed his coat. He bucked every time I attempted to put the saddle on his back. He had a way of drawing in air and making his belly swell so that I couldn’t tighten the cinch. And he kicked when I lifted his hooves to make sure no pebbles were lodged in his shoes.

Long before I could ride him, I had to learn to lead him. First I had to convince him to carry the saddle and to accept a bit in his mouth.

I could get the bridle over his head, but getting that bit in his mouth was a mighty challenge. I learned to place my hand just so. To pinch my fingers on the sides of his mouth so that he would open up and let me slip the bit in. It was all-out war, and Freckles won most of the battles.

We ended up making a compromise. I traded the traditional bridle for something called a “hackamore.” It had no bit and was made of soft leather strips that fit around his head. I was supposed to be able to move his head just by pulling the reins one way or the other.

Only Freckles was a lot stronger than I was, and no matter how hard I tugged or pulled, that horse would not turn the way I wanted him to.

“He’s headstrong,” my uncle said. “A hackamore isn’t going to work. This horse needs a bit.”

It took two strong cowboys to force the metal bit properly into Freckle’s mouth. But once it was in, all I had to do was barely tug the reins and Freckles turned.

I thought the bit was cruel, but it worked.

“If you can control the mouth, you can control the whole beast,” my uncle told me. He was paraphrasing James, who taught that when we learn to control our tongues, we bring our entire bodies under control (see James 1:26).

Once on vacation I had my photo taken while holding more than a dozen trained parrots. After my extended arms were laden with twelve full-sized tropical birds, the trainer made a fluttering noise with his tongue, and the smallest little parrot, not much larger than a hummingbird, flew to his outstretched finger. He moved his finger to my ear, where the bird perched itself for the photo.

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