Faith and Rodeo - Candace Lostroh

Can you share with us your testimony? When did you start living all out for Christ?

Well, I always grew up in church.  You could say that I had “religion” but not a “relationship” with Jesus.  I really came to know God and started living for Him in high school.  At our high school rodeos we had some amazing men of God preach on Sunday mornings so I got hear about the real Jesus and how He did everything on the Cross to make me worthy for His love and I didn’t have a bunch of sacraments to complete to be worthy of His love I just had to accept Him into my heart.  What a relief!

 

Could you touch a little bit on the testimony of your marriage.

Kody and I started dating when we were 16 years old and we got married when we were 20 years old. Kody came to Jesus when he was about 14 years old so he kind of helped me along when I decided to leave the religion that I had grown up in and to just focus on what the Bible says.  That’s what I loved about him the most right from the beginning is that he loved Jesus more than he loved me and he saw to it that I grew in my faith.  He is always so encouraging to me in everything that I do.  If Jesus wasn’t at the center of our marriage I’m not sure we’d be happily married today.  Marriage is hard!  Jesus has to be at the center of it to make it work successfully.  We’re also really good at forgiving quickly.

 

What is it that pushes you and your family to dig deeper into His word on a daily basis?

I’ll be honest that sometimes life gets away from us.  I’ll be having a rough week and I’ll stop to realize that I seriously have not picked up my Bible in a few days.  That’s when I’ll try to and get in the Word and pray.  Kody and I love praying with our girls and teaching them about Jesus.  Also, worship music really ministers to me.  If I’m having a bad day or just stressed I’ll start up my worship playlist and my girls and me will get lost to Bethel or Jesus Culture.  Sheridan always has to point out that they’re singing about Jesus.  I love watching God shape their little hearts.  There’s also nothing better than starting and ending your day in prayer.  No matter what God always welcomes me back with open arms when I’ve wandered away from Him or messed up.  He’s so forgiving.

How do you and your family stay so connected in the word, especially since your husband is on the road often?

I’m really involved in our church at Northern Colorado Cowboy Church, so when he’s away traveling I still feel like I have a family around me.  Kody’s always reading books so when he’s on the road he’ll share with me what he’s reading and what it’s ministering to him about.  I wish we were better about praying over the phone, but a lot of times he’s calling me late at night after he’s rode and I’m half asleep.  The question I get asked more than anything is, “how do you deal with him riding bulls?  Don’t you get scared?”  If I stopped to think about what “could” happen for more than a nanosecond, yes, I do get scared.  But God’s Word says to take every thought
into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  I pray for him a lot and I know that no matter what as long as we have God in our lives we have everything we need no matter what comes our way.  I also know that I’m doing my husband a disservice of I’m nervous and anxious for him as he rides because we are one flesh and if he’s not focusing on that then I shouldn’t be either.

 

 

Candace and her family

What is it like for you to share Christ to your children?

My girls are one year old and almost 3 years old and even though they’re both pretty young to fully understand a lot about Jesus and what He did for them, they’re not too young to learn about how much He loves them.  They know that mommy and daddy love them and they can feel that love from us, so we just share with them that Jesus loves them so much and even more than mommy and daddy do.  Our church has an amazing children’s ministry and I love hearing from Sheridan about what she learned in her class after church.  In Odessa’s class they put on worship music for the babies and all I hear about is how much she rocks out when she hears the music, haha! I think that’s just about the sweetest thing to watch is your babies praising Jesus!

 

 

What would you tell other wives of athletes who would their marriage to be more about Him but experience their husband gone often due to rodeo/ bull riding travels?

My ultimate advice is to prayer for your husband. Lift him up to God in his workplace, his faith, his health and just pray that in every area in his life that he will have favor with man and with God.  I also pray to God to change my heart if there’s a particular thing that I want changed in my husband.  I need to look at myself first and see if there’s something that I’m lacking in my walk with God before I start putting my finger on something in my husband’s walk.

 

Tell me about your blog 'Cooped Up Cowboy's Wife' and what inspired you to start it.

I’ve always loved to write and I love getting to share my interests and my faith with others and blogging is a perfect platform to do that.  My good friend, Kirste Wegele and I started Cooped Up Cowboy’s Wife about a year ago and it’s been so much fun.  We write posts on anything from our kiddos, to catching cows, to refinishing furniture, to fashion, and my personal favorite is getting to interview other women out there that live the same kind of life that we do.  We are so blessed that we get to meet some amazing women through this little blog and we’ve become friends with people all over the world who we would have never have come in contact with if it weren’t for our blog.  I also just love getting to encourage other woman.  I’ve seen that so many people in the blogging world think that it’s a competition against other bloggers to get readers or to get the most “likes” but to us it’s not.  We just love getting to help other people get started in pursuing their dreams and it just makes what we’re doing so rewarding! Just go for it and do what God tells you to do!