You Can Lead a Horse to Water and You Better Make Sure it Drinks

     There's an old saying that goes something like "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." Well, if the cowboys in the old westerns I grew up on would have lived by that motto, I would feel safe to bet a great many of them would have never made it across the expansive, dry prairie of the late 1800's. I can picture John Wayne preparing to head out on a round up across the unsettled U.S. and as he is getting ready to saddle up he leads his steed up to the watering trough and then watches as his horse stands there and refuses to drink. Well the Duke being the wise man he was would have known that the next watering hole could have been a great many miles away, possibly even a day or more out, so not getting a good, long drink would have not been an option as much as it would have been a necessity for survival across the vast, dry wilderness. I believe John Wayne or any real American cowboy would not have dared starting out across that desert like expanse without hydrating himself properly and making sure his mode of transportation was as hydrated as possible  as well. It just wouldn't make for much of a movie if the cowboy pulled up at the water trough, dismounted, and then as the his horse stands there defiantly denying the opportunity to store up some essential water, the cowboy says "please drink some water" and then "well if you're not going to drink I guess we'll just go ahead and move on anyway." Not sure if that movie would have sold many tickets at the box office. No, men and women of the "old west" were tough and determined, filled with grit and resiliency, not much in them in the way of giving up especially when they knew that the resulting outcome in such a case as this watering hole example would most certainly result in possible death of the horse and inadvertently create a life or death situation for the cowboy himself.
     My interpretation of this old saying is that you can provide someone with the right example, the right answer, the correct way of doing things, or even the means to a better end, but you can not make them accept it or receive it. Well as the title of today's FTM thought suggests, my take on this old adage is that if we know the importance of what we are attempting to accomplish in someone's life then we better have more persistence about us than just saying well I led my horse to the watering hole, but he didn't drink so I did my job and then move on into the desert of life unequipped or unprepared for what lies ahead.
     Being in education this example is evident in the story of many a child over my 25 years of experience. Educators are faced with "hard" cases where a child just isn't responding to the instruction provided and appears to not want a drink of water from the education well. Whether it is being obstinate, unmotivated, uninterested, or just plain old lazy there are students that appear to be content to not hydrate their minds before entering their journey of a lifetime of wildernesses and prairies they will most certainly encounter. Have we done our job if we provide the material to this child, possibly multiple times, and maybe even in several different formats and this  student refuses to accept it and embrace this education we are offering? What is our responsibility in this situation? We led them to the water, but we can't make them drink? Or knowing what lies ahead do we strive on, look "outside the box", accept the responsibility that we know this child is thirsty and that it may just take a straw, a bucket, or maybe even a swimming pool of water to get this young mind to accept what we are offering. The point is, it is too important to ever just say, I made it available and they refused to take it.
     This same principle is not restricted to the realm of education. In so many situations in life we want to do our "due cause" in helping someone get a hand up and then when it doesn't take or the person fails to succeed we feel justified in saying "Well I did my part they just didn't want to help themselves." Whether it be an education, a job skill, fighting an addiction, changing a habit, creating a change, or maybe even instilling hope we have to decide do we want to see this person be equipped for the desert that lies in front of them, the one that we all have to cross, or are we satisfied that we did our part and now it is up to them to take that nuturing drink?
     Well if we know what lies in front of these challenges and we settle on "we did our part" I think we need to ask ourselves did we do all we could do or did we do all we should have done? What if we had held on one more day, what if we would have tried one more time? When is enough enough? I guess each of us have to ask that question in the situations we are in and the circumstances we each encounter as we journey the trail of life's wilderness. But I would contend that we can't give up, especially since most of us have traveled some of the same trails that others are about to travel and we know what lies in front of them without the proper amount of "hydration" applied to the situation. It is too important, too critical, to give up, we must persist and apply the amount of grit necessary to see the situation through to the other side of the great expanse. Sounds like a calling, but how do we continue to support someone that apparently doesn't want the drink of water we are offering?
     First we never give up, we look at things through a kaleidoscope of options and adopt a mindset that I have more will power and perseverance and I won't give up on you. We look outside of the normal methods or practices and realize that an alternate route will get them to the same destination it may just take a little more time or effort. Understand that a drink of water is what we are attempting to accomplish and some will drink it through a straw while others need complete immersion to supply what is needed. And most importantly we have to have faith. If you are attempting to help someone or a group of someones and you don't have faith it will be that much harder to stay the course and see it through. Faith is unwavering in the face of adversity, it is accepting during a drought, and it is relentless when it looks like the desert is unending. Faith tells me that if we pray, if we ask for an answer, if we believe even when it seems impossible to believe that resolution is possible, then we will see success. Matthew 21:22 "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (ESV) It is too important to let that horse cozy up to the water trough and stand there without getting a drink and excusing ourselves by saying "you can't make it drink". We must be relentless in our faith and hope that if we stay true to the course and we continue to seek a way to assure that horse gets hydrated, the deserts of life will be that much more conquerable and a cool drink of water will eventually be achieved.
Coaching you up and praying for a week of purpose and fulfillment of that purpose! Make the most of it, it's all you've got so don't waste a minute of it!
Coach Carter