Puppy Love

Lucas and I got a dog a couple weeks ago.  

His name is Fletcher.

I've had a dog since I was a freshman in college.

His name is Jack.

Now we have Jack and Fletcher.

Our house has become INSANE! 

But I love both dogs for different reasons.

Would it be bad to say I love Jack more?

Let me explain:

Enter: Jack.

As I said, I've had Jack since I was a freshman in college.  I got him in January of 2004 (you can read this if you want to relive the journey I took to get him, it was for my writing class) and he has been my little buddy every since. We've been through a lot together.  He's been there through the all nighters, the heartbreaks, the joys and several VERY long car trips.  No matter what, I always knew that I could come home to an unconditional love that made me feel so special.

Enter: Lucas.

When I met Lucas one of the most important things for me was that he know I have a dog and that he needed to like Jack and Jack needed to like him.  It says a lot about a man how he treats a dog.  Lucas and Jack hit it off right away, to the point that now Jack listens to Lucas more than he listens to me...but that's probably because Jack knows that I'm wrapped around his little paw.  The three of us have been a happy little family since really before Lucas and I got married.  We would do lots of stuff together.

Enter: Fletcher.

Fletcher is one and a half.  He's also a Vizsla.  He is a ball of energy!  I think what I really like about him is how expressive he is, but this is also one of his downfalls.  He's always "talking" to you.  Be it whining, barking, or just this crazy squeaky yawn thing, it seems as though he's always making noise.  He LOVES to play and after last night I'm pretty sure he's a dog surgeon (He managed to take the squeaker out of a toy through one small hole, that I could hardly see).

Enter: Love.

Before Fletcher, I was able to allot all of my puppy love to one dog, Jack.  But now that there are two it's really difficult to share the love.  I mean, if it's this hard to do with dogs, what am I going to do when I have kids?  I want Fletcher to know that I do love and care for him, but at the same time I don't want Jack to think that I don't care about him because I have to split my time and energy between both.  It's also so much easier for me to overlook the "bad" things Jack might do (like not sitting the first time I ask or barking at the doorbell on TV) but when Fletcher does something that I don't agree with I don't feel bad at all when I reprimand him.

I'm really glad this isn't how God looks at us.  He's not just sitting up there saying things like, "Oh, Katie's been at the Christian thing for a long time, I'll let that one slide.  But oh...Little Johnny over there, he's pretty new at the Christan thing, I'd better yell at him."  God has got the "Sharing the Love" thing down pat.  He disciplines us when we need to be disciplined and he's always loving.  God doesn't play favorites.  When we believe in his Son we're welcomed into the family, and not as second class citizens.  It even says in Ephesians 2:

 ¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

I just need to work on realizing that Fletcher is part of my family now, WITH Jack, and that I need to love both dog's equally.  I'm really glad that I get to practice with dogs before I have to deal with kids! :-)

So, what do you think?

I Believe I Can Fly...

 I am afraid of heights, but more importantly I'm afraid of falling from heights.  I tried rock climbing when I was in college and I LOVED it, except for the part where you climb UP the wall. ha ha! The one thing I really regret was the fact that I only made it to the top of the wall a couple times.  But a couple weekends ago, something crazy happened.  Watch this video and you'll see:

This video was taken when I was helping out with my church's youth group AFTERSHOCK at the Disciple Now retreat weekend at Camp Tadmor just east of Lebanon, OR.  This is called, "The Giant Swing."  I'll give you some perspective: You're strapped into a harness, your team pulls you 60 feet into the air, and YOU have to pull a little string to activate a quick release.  This means that have to reach over and cause yourself to plummet 60 feet with just a cable holding you up. 

But as you can see from the video, I did it.  I try to see what God is teaching me through different events that happen in my life.  I had to think about this one for a week, but here I go:

God has got us from the start.  When I would rock climb, I would get about 15 feet up the wall and start saying to myself, "Did I tie the knot right? Is my partner belaying correctly? Is the carabiner up on the top strong enough to hold my weight?" I would talk myself out of climbing any higher.  With the giant swing I sat at the end of the cable the whole time, I knew from the start that it was going to hold my weight.  We need to believe that God is there from the beginning, even before things get scary, he's holding us up.  And God's ALWAYS got his eye on us; he doesn't get distracted.

Our brothers and sisters in Christ are there to support and lift us up in hard times.  My friends were the ones who pulled me up the 60 feet.  I didn't do any of the work, they were the ones who did it.  When I got to the top, they supported me as I prepared to swing.  Your fellow believers are there for you.  Like we learned at Disciple Now; you need the body of Christ to help you live a resurrected life.

You've got to let go and trust that God is going to catch you. You reach over, pull that quick release and trust that God's got you.  It can be hard to let go, to have things out of your control, but when you decide to follow Jesus, he asks you to let go.  The only person that can let go is you.  YOU have to pull that string, YOU have to let go and give up the control of your life. YOU need to trust that God's got you.

Sit back and enjoy the ride! If you listen really closely to the video you can hear someone in the background say, "I though she was scared?" Yeah, I was scared!  I even asked the guy who strapped and clipped me in, "How many people have died on this thing?" But once I released and trusted the cable, I was able to enjoy myself and have a little fun and even let go and relax(I did the "Lazyboy" move)! It was great and very freeing. 

The crazy thing was, I had an urge to go a second time too...HA! :-)

How have you trusted that God will help you Soar?