Laverne and his brothers sometimes train horses as a sideline hobby, and they’ve broken some in for riding and driving.
The methods they use, although mostly similar, also vary to fit the nature of the horse. Some horses are more docile and respond favorably to all the usual training to bridles, halters, saddles, and buggy harnesses.
Others are more strong-willed. They want their own way and don’t intend to change. Nor do they respond well to conventional methods of training. Then the work becomes slightly more difficult for the trainer, and a great deal more difficult for the horse.
King David of the Bible was sometimes called a man with a broken heart. But in those days, a heart that was broken had another meaning than the one that is commonly used today.
In David: The Shepherd King, author Phillip Keller explains that “in the Scriptures a ‘broken heart’ is a will that has been trained and disciplined to do God’s will. The expression is used in the same sense as we speak of a horse ‘being broken to the saddle’ or an ox ‘being broken to the plow.’ . . . It means to be harnessed or yoked.”16
King David’s hardships and sorrows and regrets were used to fashion him into a “man after [God’s] own heart” (Acts 13:22). His heart had been broken—which simply means it was trained and disciplined and yoked to God’s will.
The horses who respond promptly and willingly to their initial training are doing a favor not only to their trainers but also to themselves. The more they struggle against the commands and the confines of saddle and harness, the more the severe the training becomes. For a horse to be of any value, it must first have its own will brought into subjection, and it must be trained to obey commands.
God wants our hearts to be broken, too, and trained and disciplined to his will. We can struggle against him if we choose, of course. But if we do, we only harm ourselves in the long run.
| Prayer | Reflection |
| If I want to be a woman after your heart, O God, I know I must first be broken to your will. Give me the grace to submit to your commands. | How might I be broken today? |