lessons from Hubert – Oak and Pines

June 6, 2011

last of things learned

So for an update….Hubert is now loving life as a country dog in Ruffin, SC as Mr. Anthony Scott’s new companion. He is a lovely retired truck driver who had fallen in love with his sons bloodhounds and who’s wife had grown up with one. They love him! Jason drove him out there Saturday morning. It was a lot harder for us here than I thought it would be. My little Jack chased us out to the car screaming to not take Hubert away. Ben was in tears. I was in tears. So in the category of “lessons from Hubert”, this is my final entry. The lesson he taught me on our final exam: never, ever push something that is not meant to be. My husband spoke on “Detours” in our Kinetic service this past Sunday. He highlighted Steven Furtick’s blog entry on walls or doors. Jason focused on how when circumstances don’t go according to our plan sometimes we either try to force those circumstances into what we want or we freak out and turn around to go another way. I obviously pushed a circumstance into something that I wanted. My lovely husband loves dogs and has always loved bloodhounds. It isn’t that he isn’t a dog person, but that he has a better sense of what we can handle as a family at this time and where we are in our ministry. I think that I can take on so much, cram so many things into a day and I need my husband, my stopwatch and planner, to tell me that the plan in my head is not the one that is going to come to pass. He has a better sense when it comes to this. But I didn’t listen. I was of one track mind after seeing that cute picture of that adorable 15# puppy. I wouldn’t take no for an answer. So in that, I learned that my husband needs to be listened to. It seems he knows what he is talking about. Because for the last 2 months we have had struggles with spending Hubert’s energy, with protecting the kids from his bounding thru them, with wiping the drool off of my poor cat and with him and Marla fighting all day. So the decision to find Hubert a more suitable home was something I had to come to peace with. It was a circumstance that I made for myself because of the stubbornness of wanting to make MY plan work. Not exactly a wall that is packed full of scriptural references or a fight with a giant (David’s battle with Goliath was a wall he made into an open door for doing greater things for the kingdom of God) -but one that can be learned from and applied to being the submissive and trusting wife that I should be-which yes, is a spiritual lesson!!!

Pastor Steven Furtick says in his blog, “Your struggles are not walls, they are doors.
Doors to the next level in your relationship with God. Doors that lead to a new horizon of His favor. They’re the necessary passageways through which all of us must pass to get to the place God is taking us to. And until you go through them, you can’t get there.”

So final lesson from Hubert. My plan isn’t the one to follow. When faced with a wall-lean on those close and trustworthy around you that have an outside look at your circumstance. They can point you toward the door amongst the boulders. And more specific to this life lesson: No matter how cute and cuddly your plan may look, if it isn’t the plan that is meant for you and your God given purpose, it will grow into a smelly, slobbery mess that is heartbreaking for you and others that you have brought along your fight for your own agenda….I’m through this door now. Ready for the next wall.

June 1, 2011June 1, 2011

Free to a good home

So it seems that once God gave me a peace about finding Hubert a home, all approved parties that were interested seemed to have other plans. So we have come down to posting an ad on the ever so daunting Craigs list. This worries me for many reasons. I still have a responsibility to this dog- I have to make sure he isn’t going to be chained to some tree in a hot yard and never be played with, taken on walks or not given the care he needs. So I am enlisting YOU all in my search. Whether it be that one of you knows of someone that wants a BIG, loving, slobbery hound to have and to hold till death to they part, or if it is in prayer (don’t laugh, God answers prayers about dogs-he cares for the sparrows) for the perfect new owner to arise through his classified. He comes with his earned PetSmart diploma ;), his large collapsible crate and bed, and food to get you started! I really am sad to see him go, but want him to be loved and cared for. Click here to see his ad.

May 20, 2011May 21, 2011

Hard decisions.

Life is full of them…decisions that you wish someone else would make for you with no consequences, no guilt, or second guessing. But life is not that easy-we have things to learn, and hard decisions are one way to do this. I am at this time talking about a decision that we are trying to make with Hubert Mumford: He is such a smart dog. He is a beginner obedience graduate and is so in love with all in our house…including the cat James and our Cavalier Marla. Neither one of them have yet to return the favor. As James curls up with me tonight, my laptop in his way, I pat him on the head to find it crusty from Hubert “love”. The dog uses him as his most favorite chew toy. James is 13 years old! He just lays there looking at me-sometimes screaming- like what did I do to deserve this. I don’t know how much of this he can handle! Marla (6yrs) is not so passive. The rambunctiousness of Hubert is not tolerated by her in the least. I have never heard Marla growl or seen her retaliate as she has since January 1st…the day Hubert arrived. I’m not really worried about her, but I hate seeing her hiding out in her kennel and acting in a way that she never has before. She has always been a Mrs. Priss…but he turns her into a crazy alpha dog! This along with his elephant style playtimes with the kids, and no regards to personal space or his size (he goes under or through things, verses around them) to where he slings his shoestrings of drool has brought up some worry of if we (I) made the right decision (persuasion) to bring Hubert in as the newest Burgbacher. I have always believed that you make a decision to get a dog, you had better do the research and be ready to live with or adapt to that dog’s personality. And I did the research, read all about bloodhounds and their quirks, and being the ‘super over achiever’ that I dream in my head to be, I just knew I could handle him. Look at this face….how could I not:

Sam and I are the only BFF’s with Hubert, and to be honest, it’s conditional. There are days where I’m ready to ship him “back to the farm” as Ben calls it…but I tell Ben-“you boys are sometimes so disobedient and crazy, but I don’t send you back to the farm”. To which my witty Ben replies: “you can’t send us back to your tummy mommy” (He was channeling Nicodemus that day). Sam has days when cuddling with Hubert on the floor he is met with a paw to the face and crying ensues. With the two a for mentioned in Hubert’s corner, that leaves 3 not so fond members of the household. The little ones get sad for a moment when speaking of finding Hubert another loving home, the older guy-says quote PTL. I agree with my husband when we discuss the fact that the timing wasn’t the best for me to give him Hubert sized sad eyes when I begged to bring him home…but he is home none the less….the choice to make, is it his permanent one? So as my second blog entry on ‘lessons from Hubert’, he is teaching me something new…hope I learn.

January 20, 2011January 20, 2011

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….