Oh what a day! Actually, it's been quite a week. I'd refer to it as fragmented rather than busy, although we have been on the go a bit more than usual as well. Generally I struggle with a fragmented type of week. By fragmented, I mean that we have several places to go or things to accomplish, but they are not back-to-back. And I do not deal well with the chunks of time in between so not much gets accomplished on the homeschool front.
But Thursdays are a day where we have just one big thing to do, our homeschool co-op. It's a great opportunity for our children to do school activities with other children who are home educated. They get a chance to do the type of classroom activities that are harder to replicate at home, such as group presentations and science experiments. And we were looking forward to it all week.
We were almost ready to head out the door when we received a telephone call. "Are you Speedy's owner?" the lady on the other end of the phone said. "Yes?" I replied. "He is in front of my house" - which was about 2 blocks away. So, the kids and I head off - the oldest on his bike, the youngest on his scooter, my middle child and I on foot and I had the leash in hand.
Once we retrieved him from our nice neighbor who wanted to tell us all about the adventures Speedy had in her home while awaiting our arrival, we returned home, escorted him to his crate and headed on our way. We arrived late and this threw off our day, but at least we'd had our adventure for the day.
Or so I thought...guess who escaped 2 more times. Guess how many times we received the "Are you Speedy's owner?" phone call today. I think he may have met more neighbors today than we have met over the course of our 5 years in the neighborhood.
I never cease to be amazed at how right I was when I said that getting a second dog would grow my patience. Of course, when I said that, I never dreamed that second dog would be a beagle. Or that this Beagle should have been named Houdini or perhaps Patrick Henry. That was not my plan, but it seems he may be exactly what I needed.
Showing posts with label patience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patience. Show all posts
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
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.
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.
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