I can’t write a blog for very many days without finding an excuse to include pictures of my babies. I’ll save the (6!) cats for later. Today, it’s my dogs Chewie and Pepper that I want to talk about.
Aren’t they sweet looking? If you were meeting them in person, they’d no doubt try to lick your face and give you kisses… without knowing much of anything about you… without knowing if you loved them too…. without knowing whether you’d be kind to them again tomorrow. So loving. So trusting.
Why can’t we be more like dogs? Think how excited your dog gets when you return home. If you’ve never had a dog, trust me, they get EXCITED. Now imagine if your spouse (or son/daughter, mother/father) greeted you like that when you returned home EVERY day. Dogs don’t ever seem to get blah about things….oh, it’s just you again…let me get back to my bone…. No, they are excited, up on their feet, tails wagging, eyes bright, ready to give you hugs (knock you down rambunctiously) and kisses (slobbery licks).
We had a dog named Josh that turned circles when he got excited. We’d come home and he’d be going round and round by the fence, so excited to see us. One day when my husband Danny came home and I was in the doggy yard, I turned circles too. That’s been a long time ago. I probably need to turn some circles for him today to show him how much I love him.
Another thing about dogs is their seeming ability to forgive. Have you ever accidentally stepped on, or kicked your dog (they do get underfoot sometimes)? They’ll yelp and run away momentarily, but within seconds they’re back being their loving selves. Is it because they have limited memories and have already forgotten that you hurt them? Or, are they smart enough to understand you saying, “Sweetie, I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to hurt you”, and trusting enough to believe that you won’t turn around and do it again?
Dogs don’t wait until you’ve failed to get their dinner on time and then bring up all the times you’ve been late in the past. They don’t ignore you when you come home because they’re mad at you for being preoccupied and ignoring them. They don’t wait until you’ve shown excitement to see them before they do the same. They are not a “you love me first and then I’ll love you” type of animal.
Regardless of what is going on in those sweet doggy brains, I think we could learn a few things from them. We do need to have some protection in place for our heart so that we don’t offer it up on a platter to be hurt again and again - but we need a balance too - where we can forgive others first and be able to love and trust again. Maybe not as quickly as our dogs, but sooner than next year.
I believe God created all things. I think He did an especially excellent job with dogs.
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