Virtues of Horsemen: Walking with the Holy Spirit A Devotional

By Melinda Buckallew Villarreal

Choosing “The Narrow Path” or “The Road Less Traveled” can often leave us feeling alone regarding our resolve to be Christ’s follower. Most of our world no longer knows what moral standards are or even the definition of what it means to be virtuous.
If we are careful about whose compass we follow, we can avoid heading down the wrong path. With the Holy Spirit as our guide, the Holy Bible is the Christians’ compass and offers wisdom as we seek every virtue shining the light of Jesus to a world that desperately needs Him.
Though we think of purity and kindness as the definition of virtue, it is much more. Being virtuous is a way of life that focuses our goals on excellence. These goals describe who we are because of our actions, which is what we do, and say. For a Christian, virtue ultimately demonstrates the love of God that beams Christ’s light to a world of suffering and pain. God calls us to work out this perfection to be impactful in our relationships because our lives are a ministry to ALL we touch throughout our daily happenings.
If one is to be considered virtuous, their life must reflect a high standard with the primary goal of being excellent. Notice I said the “goal of being excellent.” Excellence does not lead to perfection because no one is, no matter how hard we try. The goal of adopting a standard of living out of biblical principles guides us to look like Jesus. Growing in our relationship with Him is the result.
Virtuous people not only know what is right but also live it out. They go the extra mile to be intentional in what they speak, do, and value. They have the purpose with the opportunity to honor God as they reflect His image to the world around us.


It’s a noisy, enticing world that pulls us in many directions, rather than closer to God. Being tuned into God through daily conversation allows us to listen to the Holy Spirit. As we ride down life’s trail, the Holy Spirit is here to help us make decisions that are God’s best for us.
In Virtues of Horsemen, author Melinda Buckallew Villarreal shares how walking with God is in everything you do, think, and say. By grasping biblical virtues, she demonstrates how you can turn your Christian walk into worship. Through scripture and her personal experiences with both horses and physical limitations, this devotional teaches you how to transform daily repetition, struggles, or pain into lessons. Villarreal communicates that church on Sunday is not enough, and she leaves you wanting more of God in your life.
Each devotional includes application questions to stretch you and to encourage your growth with God and your daily walk with the Holy Spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385005321

Melinda Buckallew Villarreal

As a young girl, Melinda Buckallew Villarreal recognized her love and appreciation of animals. She expanded on this love and realized she had a gift for communicating with horses. Though she had physical challenges that ultimately limited her, she took on the challenge of raising and training her horses anyway. Melinda’s faith grew while God gave her the strength and courage to endure her disability. She shares how walking with God is in everything we do, think, and say. By grasping biblical virtue, Melinda demonstrates how we can turn our daily Christian walk into worship. She and her husband Chris, of 31 years, raised two children. These are some lessons she wanted to impart to them and all who will listen.

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Virtues of Horsemen

Walking with the Holy Spirit

A DEVOTIONAL

MELINDA BUCKALLEW VILLARREAL

Copyright © 2023 Melinda Buckallew Villarreal.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Interior Image Credit: Melissa Windham- horse trainer in Ca

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0630-4 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0629-8 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0532-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023916412

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/03/2023

Table of Contents

Adoption

Magnificently Made

Stand

Community

Heartbreak

Mucking

Conversation

Legacy

Winner

Trouble

Commitment

Solid Ground

Virtuous Horseman

What Virtue is Not

*NIV is the version of the Holy Bible quoted except when otherwise noted.

Meet the Author

I do not claim to be a professional horseman. I declare my love for the horse that God placed in my heart as a girl of eight years old. I was a girl who dreamed of having a horse, and my parents helped bring that dream to fruition.

I was a girl discovering I had a hip bone disease called Legg-Perthes disease. This disease was rare, with unknown results at the time. It entailed multiple surgeries that left me, an eight-year-old child, wondering what life had for me.

I often prayed on the back of my horse and while cleaning corrals. My disease brought pain, which created endurance, perseverance, and determination. God’s help gave me the strength and courage I could not have achieved without these lessons that God has shown me. I was determined to make the best of my disability. In the big picture, this disability could have been worse. I was in pain much of the time. I had to learn to walk and rehabilitate back from multiple surgeries.

I learned to count my blessings when things got tough because others had worse problems than mine. I considered myself blessed because I had a horse to help me forget my troubles. The time I spent training gave me a goal, and I could ride for hours learning to listen to God.

Later in my life, I raised my children with horses. My girlfriend and I had a lot of fun with our kids creating a Saddle Club we ran for a few years. The pain from my disease continued to worsen with age. The pain became so bad that I did not want to do the everyday things I thought a Mom should want to do with her kids. I could not handle the pain any longer and decided to get a hip replacement at the young age of forty. The outcome surprised me as the doctor had never seen Legg Perthes’s disease. The doctor informed me that I would no longer bend farther than ninety degrees after surgery. The hope of riding again was a long-lost dream. The risk was just too much. This news was HARD for me to hear, but the blessing was that my pain was gone. I didn’t even know what pain-free felt like until it was gone.

Prayerfully, with much growth since this surgery, the Lord always provides a way to bring us back to the love and purpose He places in our hearts. I thank Him for the experiences He gave me because these experiences have set me here writing to you.

May you be blessed as you learn to take daily experiences and relate them to your walk with the Holy Spirit, who resides in you if you have invited Him. Take the lessons in scripture and walk with Jesus as your example. As you grow in your walk with God, may you look at life through the lens of a Christian worldview. This view will help you navigate through life to discern God’s truth.

May all be blessed who read it as I share how walking with God is in everything we do, think, and say. Let us turn our walk into worship from an incredible breathtaking mountaintop experience to the lows of scooping horse manure in the hot sun. We must realize that we are blessed each step of the way.

Adoption

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some

understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting

anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

I lost my American Quarter Horse to colic, and after much inquiry, I decided to adopt a feral horse, also known as the American mustang. The mustang represents American freedom, wide-open spaces, and a connection to God’s creation. The mustang of today is not the original Spanish mustang brought to America. Still, it has become the mutt of the horse world.

Many domesticated horses across the Americas have been set free or lost since the settlement of America in 1607. On the West Coast, strong draft horses were let loose during the gold rush of 1849, as the dangerous trail over the Sierra Mountains caused the wagon trains to be compromised. Today, one can find once-registered horses of all breeds that have been let loose when Americans find themselves in a hard place financially. People let these beautiful creatures go free rather than send them to auction to end up in kill pens potentially. Breeding the original mustang with domesticated horses has resulted in various attractive and not-so-attractive horses. You just never know what you are going to see. In these horses that adapt to the wild, you will find that they are tough, easy keepers, which was important to me.

We drove to the cold, windy, dusty western Mojave Desert in Ridgecrest, California. The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wrangles horses by helicopter and ATVs (all-terrain vehicles). Herds of horses are loaded in trailers and brought to the facility from all over California and Nevada. Cattle ranchers say the removal of the horses is necessary, as they threaten the cattle’s sustenance on their ranches. When the horses come into Ridgecrest via truck and trailer, cowboys group them as far as the eye can see.

With a breathtaking view of the Eastern Sierra Mountains, there are pens for stallions, mares, geldings, pregnant mares, and mares with foals, including jennies (mare burros) and jacks (stallion burros). I assumed I had gone for a Quarter Horse–looking gelding because I’d lost a Quarter Horse gelding, and the mare I knew could have been more personable. Overwhelmed by choices, I looked at each pen for hours, jotting pen numbers, tag numbers, and colors. I must have had twenty horses on that list.

I came to the mare pen, where I quickly found a seemingly young mare in the middle of this massive fenced area looking at me. This mare was approximately a fifteen-hand chestnut bay with a star on her forehead, a long wild mane, a dorsal stripe, and three fluffy white socks. I thought she was young and beautiful, not filled out just yet, but I was curious about her staring at me with such interest. She was beautifully feminine with the feathery socks of a draft horse but the stride of a Tennessee Walker. She pranced as if so youthful, proud, and alert, flaring her nostrils as if she was showing off, saying, Look at me; aren’t I pretty? I put her at the top of the list of possibilities.

We went to the other pens, double-checking visible conformation and stride, but I remained drawn to her. Something about