Your Cowboy...YOUR Biggest Fan

When you grow up in a family like I did you look towards the future. It looks and sounds amazing in the minds eye, the view through that lense is clear unobstructed and void of any clutter or obstacle. In that view you see a family of your own, kids, horses, dogs, family friends, vacations, a home church, and someone standing beside you wandering your life and following your interests and your passions as you do the same for theirs. People say you marry your "best friend" and that may be true. I say we are all looking for our "Biggest fan."

My father is a simple, brilliant, strong, accomplished man. He is also a cowboy, honest, hard working, crack shot, build it yourself, help the neighbor bring the crop in, ass in the saddle, hand on the horn, cowboy. As I wander through life people often comment on my talents in every area of my life. They come from this man and my mother, but he taught me what a real man looks like, acts like, and lives like.

One of the greatest things my father taught me was how to treat a woman, your woman. This never took place in a conversation, there wasnt a water shed moment in time we spoke in detail about this subject. He just lived it and let me watch. I was the fortunate onlooker to a mans life who showed up, who gets it, who does it right.

In my fathers home office there was a plaque that hung. This plaque was of no grand flair, the horse in the drawing was not C.W. Russelesque, but the message branded my soul....and still speaks to my heart, as I look for her:

" If a man has enough horse sense to treat his wife like a thoroughbred...she will never grow into and old nag."

Simple enough...odd...quirky some might say, but after witnessing 40 years of my parents marriage, I know it to be true. I have seen it acted out in front of me my entire life by this man. I read a lot and I love quotes, I love independent thoughts, I love to learn. For all that I have read, this simple, odd, quirky, quote is like poets words are to some. To me it says more than what is written, between the lines, over the lines, and under the lines it says this, ... " Honey, I am your biggest fan, I will be in the first row cheering for your life."

It says that you will be taken care of, I will be the gaurdian of your heart. I will embrace you and your interests and your passions will be my passions, your life will be my life, and your existence will make mine worth all the more. I will be a front row witness to your wonderful life, and you to mine. Wherever you desire to go in life, experience in life, choose to pursue, count me in. We will navigate the waters of life together, and you will always be safe, through storms, in me you will always find safe harbor and the lighthouse will be my heart. I will show up, and there will never be a time for me to worry about your cause I know that I will always be there, and should circumstance or chance make that difficult...time will be all that seperates how soon I come to you in your time of need. I will love you and hug you with open arms, to allow you the freedom to be who God designed you to be, but in those open arms, you will never fall. I will cast away fear, and eliminate doubt, I will keep the wolves of life a safe distance from the fire of our camp.

I... will be your Cowboy.

Although tomorrow is never assured, and the future we look towards together is a clouded mystery waiting to be rode through. I will ride confidently anyway, I will clear the trail, I will assure safe passage, and I will bring you through whatever it is that we encounter. I will ride into fear and the unseen confidently, so you can find comfort. Yes...I will be your cowboy...YOUR biggest fan.