Thoughts on being a cowboy...

Someone recently called our pastor a “COWBOY”. It bothered me for a while, but the more I think about it, the more glad I am that he is. You see, when I was a kid, cowboys were my heroes. There was Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Johnny Mack Brown, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, Gary Cooper, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, John Wayne, Marshal Matt Dillon, and many others. Personally I think Roy Rogers could beat them all up and then sing a song afterward to his girlfriend. He was my favorite.

What made the cowboys so special? What were the common attributes of these legendary men? Here are a few.

• They were never looking for trouble, but when it came, they acted on it with courage.
• They were always on the side of right.
• They defended good people against bad people.
• They had high morals.
• They had good manners.
• They were honest.
• They spoke the truth regardless of what people thought or their lack of “political correctness”, which no one had heard of back then.
• They were a beacon of integrity in the Wild, Wild, West.
• They were respected. When they walked into a saloon, where they usually drank only sarsaparilla, the place became quiet, and the bad guys kept their distance.
• They always won.
• They always got their man.
• In victory, they rode off into the sunset.

Those were the days when there was such a thing as right and wrong, something now blurred in our modern world and denied by many. Those were the days when women were respected and treated like ladies because they acted like ladies.

Now that I am older, I still like cowboys. They represent something good-something pure that America seems to be missing. God help us to again want to be cowboys when we finally grow up!