Wet, Racing Dogs Can Build Patience

This afternoon I had an experience I wasn't expecting.

It had been raining out (which I didn't realize) and our dogs were out in it - getting soaked.  When we brought them in, it was obvious our younger (also described as "wilder") dog would need to spend the afternoon in his crate or he would get everything wet.  But he had other ideas.

He started by wrestling with his "big brother".  He did stop long enough to cooperate and head upstairs per my request.  But he blasted into our room where my husband had been resting.  He then shot quickly back out of the room and down the stairs.  After a quick tour of the main floor he returned upstairs and actually ran into his crate.

Good - I had him just where I wanted him...until he shot back out of that crate and blasted onto the bed, landing on the sleeping (and fairly grumpy) cat.  So, sleeping cat and resting husband were no longer doing either - in fact, sleeping cat had become a whirling ball of fur and claws.  As a result, the crazy dog shot back off the bed after the cat, but by then I had gotten wise enough to close the bedroom door so both were trapped.  They then began running circles around me.  When he finally came to a stop and simply resorted to obnoxious barking I was able to catch him and escort him to his crate.

When we first got this dog I honestly told my husband that I thought getting another pet would be good for me because felt I needed the growth in patience it would provide.  Yes, I said that.  I wish I could say that was a mistake on my part.  But it wasn't.

So often we are told not to pray for patience.  And yet, patience is listed in Galatians 5:22-23 among the evidences we are to find in our lives - the "Fruit of the Spirit".  God wants us to display patience just as much as He wants us to display love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and (the other dreaded one) self control.  These are all areas in which we need to grow.

Today's lesson in patience brought me to fits of laughter.  A few months ago it may have easily brought me to fits of anger.  I guess sometimes growing in patience can be comical.  By the way, before we even really knew much about this dog, we named him "Speedy".  Some days I wish we'd picked "Sleepy", "Lazy" or "Pokey" instead.