12 Rules for Manliness: Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

Deep in every man's heart he senses that call to live the heroic way, to champion a cause that is greater than him and so he reaches out to a God that is too. The everyday hero goes beyond the ordinary in the ordinary moments of life and he rides high in the saddle of his principles and dreams. Cowboys were perceptive and decisive. Part of their ease in making decisions was because they knew what they stood for and they knew how to make a stand. They knew what they believed and they lived by a Personal Creed and the Cowboy Code. They were quick to act. They were clever but not conniving. To them it was simple to understand what needed to be done, even though the doing of it may not be easy. When push came to shove, they could not be shoved. Their reputations preceded them and their good name was the most valuable possession they had. They were not quick to anger but if someone called them a liar, a cheat or a thief or disrespected a woman or messed with their horse, that interloper was in for a world of hurt. They believed in Justice and in the Rule of Law. They traveled light. They carried in their saddle bag hard tack biscuits, flour, beef jerky, bacon, beans, coffee and usually a bible, or Plato or even a book on the Law. They slept with one eye open at night, alert for danger and rose just before first light. Though there was a fire in their belly, they were slow to anger. They knew how to diffuse a conflict with a prideful arrogant man without fists or gunplay. Their words were few but packed a punch. They could be trusted and they gave to each man what they had due from him. They were prudent in how they pursued their day's work and their life goals. They were wise with their money and they pinched out savings when they could, usually kept in a coffee can, next to the gunpowder. Sometimes they quietly and secretly invested in businesses as silent partners or bought a spread of land and started their own cattle ranch. They were skilled hands at everything it took to work a ranch but preferred to do their work while on their horse when possible. They took care of things and better care of animals and people. Their ranches were no rawhide outfit, hastily thrown together and then ignored with fence posts leaning over and roofs patched together and a dirt floor. They built things to last. Logging their wood from the trees on their land and trimming the logs for their cabin, barn, corrals and fence posts. After a long ride, they watered, fed and rubbed down their horses before they took care of their own needs. They kept their guns clean, reloaded them as soon as they were fired and kept them always close by. "A rifle in the wagon is worthless." John Wayne. They were providers. They were protectors. Though they had a stirring or a desire for a woman, you did not see them lusting after women and most certainly sex was for after marriage. They respected women and they carefully protected a woman's honor. Though they were often slow in coming to love, when they did love a woman, they were all in. They stepped in between danger and the vulnerable.They knew where the next watering hole was or how to find water. They were spatially aware of their surroundings whether in a crowded room or on a mountain trail checking their back trail for a stalking mountain lion. As they rode they always looked back because the trail looks different when you are going than when you are returning. Good lesson for us now, when so many are rejecting our history to remember that by looking back you may just find your way. They fiercely loved their Ma & Pa and their siblings and even more fiercely loved their own woman and their children. They loved their country. In a fight, they may not always win but they never backed down from one either. They had grit, a word we don't hear much of these days. They had fortitude. They pressed on in the toughest of circumstances on long trail drives, or through deserts or snow storms. Good men define themselves by the hardships they endure in facing the challenges that they overcome in pursuit of their creed and their mission. God stands by a man like this. "The eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the earth for the man whose heart is totally yielded to Him that he might strongly support Him."

• | Author: Bear Woznick
• | Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
• | Publication Date: Sep 19, 2023
• | Number of Pages: 216 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 1644136368
• | ISBN-13: 9781644136362