When The Dog Wants To Play

All day long, Kasey has been hanging out with me while he waits for dad to get home, mostly just laying around kind of mopey, once in a while out in the yard to terrorize all UPS drivers, small children, and squirrels. So finally, the time arrives, and dad is home, and he's a happy puppy again. Time to play! I'm trying to work, and the dog decides I'm the one he wants to play with. Just wonderful! So he starts chewing his toy right beside my leg to get me to throw it. Then he got the bright idea that he could put the toy right on my keyboard, and I would have to stop typing and throw the toy. I wonder if anyone has ever told him he's too smart for his own good?

Moral of the story: Never underestimate the wiley ways of a dog who is ready to have a little fun after a long, lonely day.

What's Your Life Verse?

I've got a couple. First is Psalm 40:2-3 because that's the story of what God through faith in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection has done for me.

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

My second is 1 John 3:2.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Here's the story I submitted for the One Year Life Verse Devotional, which will be published next year. Check back to see if I'll have my 15 minutes of fame.

During my last two years of high school, I attended church with one of my high school teachers, Mr. G., and his family. Mr. G. would listen to my teenage troubles, and say "Don't worry. You'll get there." After graduation, I joined the Navy and lost contact with Mr. G. for many years. During that time, I became an atheist and spent the next 18 years totally apart from God. But no matter how bad things seemed, I would always hear Mr. G. saying, "Don't worry. You'll get there." Sometimes that was the only hope I had.

Finally, in 1997, just when things couldn’t have been better, God stepped back into my life, and in January 1999, I placed my faith in Jesus Christ. Sometime later I began to understand how unlike Christ I was. It was then that I found 1 John 3:2 and realized that, even though I wasn't as much like Jesus right now as I wanted to be, there is coming a day when I will be. Then I remembered how Mr. G. would always say, "Don't worry. You'll get there." I didn't know where "there" was then, but now I don’t worry about how slow my progress seems or how often I fail. God has promised that with one look I’ll finally be there.