Grandpa taught cowboy lessons of life

Whoever coined the phrase “Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever” never met my grandfather.

He was a true cowboy right up until the final moments of his life this month, and I have no doubt he is riding still on the other side. In fact, one of his final sentiments in the days before his death was, “I’ll be riding forever.”

My grandpa, Glendon Johnson, made a remarkable recovery from a heart attack in his final two weeks of life, giving his family and loved ones a chance to say goodbye before the damage to his heart eventually took him. In those precious final days, Grandpa was true to form, welcoming everyone to his bedside, cracking jokes and saying, “They don’t call us tough for nothing.”

The "us" he was referring to is a particular brand of man that is rare to find these days. Glendon Johnson was a businessman, a gospel man and a family man; but at his core, he was a cowboy.

His hands may have been speckled with age spots, but I know those hands roped hundreds of cows and guided a lifetime’s worth of horses. His eyes beamed with wisdom earned by watching countless sunsets from atop a horse.

Grandpa always exuded an aura of toughness wound tightly around a core of good old-fashioned cowboy charm. And I was lucky enough to learn some of his cowboy lessons of life.

Anyone who Glendon taught to ride a horse can attest that the first lesson of cowboying is simple: heels down, toes out. Learn it. Live it.

The second cowboy lesson I learned is one that has helped me with my own children. Grandpa always taught me to correct a horse immediately if it starts misbehaving. Simply back the horse out of its error and make him re-do the action correctly. If the horse gets away with something once, you’ll be fighting him the rest of his life.

Grandpa also taught me how to treat and lead others in the way he treated his horses. You can beat a horse into submission, or you can teach, encourage and lead a horse. Both horses will accomplish the exact same task, but the beaten horse will hate you for it; the other will love you for life.

The fourth cowboy lesson is that sometimes, cowboys do cry — but only when it matters. I’ve only seen my grandfather cry a handful of times in my life, but you can bet it was about one of these things: his wife, his mother, his children or his faith. He had no problem showing his vulnerability when it came to those things closest to his heart.