things i’ve learned from my dog…so far

So by now you all know of our new addition…Hubert….Mr. Long Ears. Puppies are definitely challenging. I’m not going to lie and say that it has all been love and cuddles…He chews, he barks, he pummels poor Marla and James with his clumsy body just wanting to play. He even thought my iphone would make a good chew toy…thank the Lord for a otterbox strong as nails cover and a thick privacy screen protector…But the fact that he is with us after all that just solidifies the craziness that we live as dog lovers. But through his short span of life with us thus far, Hubert has taught me a few things. I have one that is blog worthy at the moment: Housekeeping. You see, Hubert came from a “farm”. When I say farm I don’t want you to picture rolling hills of beautiful jersey cows in pastures flanked with white fluffy sheep and pink resting pigs. No. I want you to picture Hubert’s previous home, the place he was whelped. This place, with 2 muddy sows in a 12 x 12 pen, that was conveniently placed beside the huge catch-all garbage pile that looked like it had been set ablaze at some point in the last week. This farm had about 8 goats all gathered together bleeting at Hubert and his new owners through the wire enclosure along with two very boisterously loud geese that the misses of the ‘farm’ informed us turned out to be two females and since were no good to her. Next to this enclosure was a ‘barn/shed’. It had newly scattered hay (which thankfully was were Hubert spent most of his time). Also here behind the ‘barn/shed’ were 3 mud slinged milking cows behind a one acre barbed wire fence. And littered all around were other “rescued” animals. This woman had a great heart. She loved animals. I think she really does take good care of them as a woman on a farm in Huger, SC would. She spoke very highly of her cows, almost like they were her kiddos…so I say all of this, not to judge, but to let you know of why Hubert taught me something-It has to do with where he came from. Back to his new home, a modest home in a neighborhood with ducks in the pond behind his picket fence as the closest familiar thing to farm life, we now find Hubert. Along with all the puppy antics aforementioned he also poops…a lot. So this brings my puppy responsibility up another notch…scooping and cleaning our yard. The first time I performed this chore, Hubert sat in the middle of the yard, cocked his head to one side and watched me….you could almost read the bubble over his head…”why is she doing that??” He had never been in a house before let alone have a poop-scooping butler. I know the advantages of a clean yard-he had never experienced one. So I started to think. Sometimes those who know the advantages of a clean life tend to look down on those who have never experienced one. But at that moment Hubert showed me that those who live among dirt, mud, filth, otherwise known as SIN, don’t really notice it as gross. This life to them is just life. It isn’t until they experience that sovereign cleaning that they can see how life is meant to be lived, righteously after Jesus Christ. But as with my pal Hubert, sometimes we have to get out and help them clean. We can’t be too grossed out to pick up our poop scooper. We also can’t expect them to stay sterile…Hubert still makes a mess. It is through acts of kindness and showing love that they will see how fulfilling that clean life can be, and with discipleship you hope that the righteous life will forever become more and more like Christ putting off that which they once lived as ‘normal’ and strive for holiness. Clean and a new creation like the passage in Ezekiel that we received at ladies retreat this year, it says in chapter 36 verses 25-27: ²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Let us be available and not too worried about getting our hands dirty to reach out to those who just don’t know of the clean life they are yet destined for!

Now if I could just get Hubert to scoop his own business….and live a clean house dog life….