June 12, 2010
Greetings My Friend,
One of the things I love about where we are at in Virginia is the openness out here. I take a walk pretty much each day. I generally walk to the dumpster to discard used cat litter then over to the to the mail box to pick up mail. I stop at E’s for a visit and then I walk the length of her property back to our house.
Sometimes when I walk out the front door I am greeted by Tiny. Tiny is a white 60 pound bundle of love. He visits us regularly. He likes helping Junior as he works in the yard. He loves to follow us as we walk the property, take a hike and he follows me to the dumpster and mail box. Tiny is friendly and very loveable. He has been known to “fall” into the river a time or two as well. I think he likes being playful. It is hard not to love him. He still is a dog though. He likes to chew the rungs of our rocker. W leaves a pair of shoes on his porch and Tiny has eaten them. We have a chair on the porch with a blanket. Many days the blanket is off the chair and other objects are strewn around on the porch and on the property. As I said, he is all dog.
Sometimes I am amazed at thoughts that seem to float into my brain. Later when I think about it, I can’t believe I’ve even entertained those thoughts. For a while Tiny’s owners weren’t able to feed him well. He was very thin. The couple that owned him has three very young children. Money was tight for them and feeding Tiny was a challenge. When Tiny appeared on our porch it was difficult to not feed him. We did. I think that’s why he comes for visits. He remembers that we fed him.
The young couple could not handle the expense of the home they were in and moved in with his parents who are in the area. Tiny still comes for visits and we love him very much. Tiny is a joy. We feel like we have a dog, even though he is not ours every day, all day.
As I was walking along one day, Tiny following me, this thought appeared out of nowhere. My thoughts went something like this. “I could put him in our truck. I could drive him over to my sister’s house. He could live with her and I know that Tiny would be well taken care of. The family won’t know what happened and Tiny would be in a warm comfortable home. He would be loved and cared for.”
I could not believe I entertained this thought. It is not something I would do. It is foreign to me to do something along those lines. I kept trying to justify my thoughts, making it “right” in my mind’s eye. I had a hard time shaking this thought too. I tried to think of other things, to let it go and the thought kept coming back.
One of the goals in my life is to do the right thing. I want to be a compassionate woman. I don’t want to see suffering and if I can, I’d like to make life better, even if it is for an animal. Still taking someone’s pet and giving it away is not the thing to do. Calling the pound, yes that would be ok in my thought process. Feeding Tiny is ok. Tiny has a lot of fur on him, so he can withstand the cold weather. He likes jumping into the river in the middle of the winter, so cold is not a problem for him. Since this family moved into the parent’s home, Tiny does not look underfed anymore. He looks healthy and even happy. So why did I entertain the thought of taking him to my sister? I still wonder why I would entertain stealing this dog.
I mentioned to Junior about the thoughts I had. I told him I was surprised by them. He told me that it was more than likely “Satan.” One of the names given to Satan is “deceiver.” He likes to pop a thought into your mind. He makes it seem innocent enough. Like me “rescuing” Tiny and giving him to my sister.
To be honest, I don’t fully understand Satan and how he works in our lives. I believe he exists and that we need to be wary of him. I also comprehend that he has a way of taking the “innocent” things and making them wrong, like me wanting to “rescue” Tiny.
As of this writing Tiny still comes for visits. He is precious and we love him a whole lot. Like I said it feels like we have a dog, even if we don’t own him. He comes often enough for visits and we love on him when he does visit. We tolerate his puppy ways of chewing, fussing at him, etc when we need to. We take walks and love when Tiny follows us in his big lumbering way. He even will follow the truck or Explorer as we pull out and down the road. Sometimes he even begins to trot after us.
Although we don’t see the family like we did when they were near us, I believe that the boys in this family must love Tiny. He is big enough to take the boys roughness. I bet Tiny even loves these boys. I am grateful that I did not act upon those thoughts I had. I am, grateful that somewhere in my spirit I heard God tell me not to “listen” to these thoughts or to act upon them.
As I close, I have a question. What in your thought life do you need to let go of?
May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you.

Love
Janet