Lessons from Lucy

Push, pull, drag, lurch, tug, yank. This describes my walk with my dog, Lucy, yesterday. By the time we got home I was so aggravated that I found myself severely scolding her about what a bad dog she was and how it's not worth it to take her on walks anymore.

I was bothered later about how I reacted so severely to my sweet, rather dopey dog and how I had done it in front of my fifteen month old son. I don't want him to see me "barking" at the dog more than she barks at me. So there I sat, feeling guilty and not knowing what to do about it and, out of the blue, God showed me a picture in my mind.

In my relationship with Him, I often push, pull, drag,etc...trying to get Him to follow me rather than the other way around. The difference is, I know better. Lucy, bless her heart, has not been properly trained to follow me when she's on her leash. She doesn't know that she's not supposed to be the one leading. It's her nature to run ahead unless I specifically train her not to.

In my case, God is the Leader and I know this. So when I choose to try to go off in different directions, it causes me pain. He doesn't change the path for me, He expects me to follow where He's leading. The problem is that I, like Lucy, want to run ahead to see what's coming or I get distracted by something over here, so I lurch to the side, or I want to yank back and check out what's behind me. I'm impatient to just follow along and yet, that's the only way He'll have it and the only way I can live in peace.

Ugh! Don't cha just hate it when God uses everyday annoyances to teach you a lesson? Just so you know, I apologized to Lucy with a good belly scratch and, like always, she was instantly forgiving. Ah, another lesson I can learn from her. Dang it!