Old Dog Sled and The Lesson of Holding On To The Hope That You Have

My poor little sisters.  I owe them so many apologies.  But one memory became very vivid as I read in the Bible about Holding On To The Hope that You Have.

One day Mom and Dad were gone and we were finding things to do to entertain the younger ones (to keep them from fighting lol) when we noticed the old dog sled behind the shed.  The kind that we watched in movies with Huskies pulling them.  Who knows where it came from BUT...It looked fun.

We saddled two horses and tied ropes to the sled and pulled it across the road to the flat wheat stubble that was now covered with snow.  Putting sisters in the sled-we thought that we should have someone standing on the back runners as we had seen them doing on TV.  So my brave middle sister jumped on.

So with two horses we began slowly and the girls thought it was grand.  We were singing "Jingle Bells" so we began to trot which thrilled the girls.  So of course we decided that if fast was good then faster would be better.  Looking ahead to make sure that we didn't hit anything and the rope dallied tight on the horn-we began to run!

Bitter cold hit our faces and the horses were feeling frisky and life was good.  

All of a sudden, I heard screaming and turned my head to see what was happening.  It was as if I was seeing it all in slow motion.  

My middle sister's hands were still gripping the bar at the back of the sled but her feet?...  They were straight out in the air.  She looked like a flag with her feet waving behind her.

We had sense enough to gradually slow down but when we stopped~her feet were still dragging behind us making two lines in the snow.  

AND...She was MAD!  After much cajoling we talked her into getting into the middle part of the sled promising to go slow all the way home.

But..leave it to my sisters...another one wanted on the back to ride the sleigh runners.  And of course we let her.  She wanted to fly too she said.  So....we ran.  But just a little bit this time.

So Holding On To the Hope You Profess always brings this picture to mind...  

A little girl-hands gripping the bar and her feet flying in the wind!