Have you ever met a man… that taught you exactly who you never wanted to become? … The Good Book says…Stay away from a fool; you will gain no knowledge from his speech. The sensible man will consider his way, but the stupidity of the fool deceives him…. … There was an old cowboy I knew. Never met a silence he couldn’t improve upon. Every campfire became his pulpit. Every story somehow ended with his name Every opinion came without invitation. While he kept talkin you’d watch that circle thin out one by one… One man remembered his horse needed checking. Another suddenly found interest in the stars. The last feller left wasn’t interested… …just too polite to leave. That ol’ cowboy was never talking to folks. He was just proving himself. And a man busy proving himself don’t have time to hear anybody else. Years passed. His family learned to endure him. His wife stayed. Whether out of love… or duty… only the Lord knows. Life finally threw him. Flat on his back. I thought maybe pain would teach him to listen… It didn’t. The stories kept coming. The advice kept flowing. The bragging never missed a breath. Even suffering couldn’t pry that old pride loose from his grip. Then one day it struck me. The Lord hadn’t put that man in my path… so I’d spend my life talking about him. He put him there so I’d recognize the trail before my own boots walked it. Now every time I feel the need to make sure folks know what I’ve done… I remember that old cowboy. And I shut my mouth. Cause sometimes men preach sermons by watchin by listening, by waitin. … His whole life said the same thing. The fool can lose everything except his opinion of himself. Lord… if I ever become a man folks endure instead of a man who leaves them stronger don’t wait until I’m flat on my back. Humble me while I can still turn my horse around. Cause from my point of view, I don’t ever want to be like that ol’ cowboy. I will not despise the Lord’s instruction, or loathe his discipline; for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, Lord, Do anything you got to do to make me a better kind of man
