At 3:30am this morning(not a myth either) my dog, Moses P. Diddy Hall aka Moe, began barking. This usually means one thing…. He is an attention seeking, self absorbed dog… okay, maybe it might mean he needs to go potty and therefore is sending us his little dog message… if only he had a big dog bladder in his little dog body… Long story short, he woke us up. I laid there for a few minutes and fortunately, he stopped barking and didn’t need us after all… But that is not the part that makes me so proud of Moe, this is……..
My daughter came running up the stairs as we were all getting ready this morning. I was concerned because there was a bit of fear in her voice. She asked her dad if he had been in his car this morning and gotten into his glove compartment. He said that he hadn’t…. That meant that it had happened again… Our car had been broken into… They didn’t take much, just a little money. This is the third time that this has happened since we have lived in this neighborhood. We live in a nice enough neighborhood and don’t really fear this kind of thing but still yet, always try to remember to lock the car doors. This just happened to be a night that Chris forgot to lock up… again, not much taken, just some quarters from his change dish and a few dollars from my daughter’s purse….
So really Moe wasn’t barking to go out because he needed to potty, he was barking because he wanted to go outside and bite the thieves’ legs off…. Good Moe.
I find it interesting that my reading yesterday was Leviticus 6-7. It began like this:
Leviticus 6:1-7
1 The LORD said to Moses: 2 “If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbor about something entrusted to him or left in his care or stolen, or if he cheats him, 3 or if he finds lost property and lies about it, or if he swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do- 4 when he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, 5 or whatever it was he swore falsely about. He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering. 6 And as a penalty he must bring to the priest, that is, to the LORD, his guilt offering, a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. 7 In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for any of these things he did that made him guilty.”
Well, what do you know…. God just told our little car robbers that they need to pay us back plus some. I’m feeling some justice here… but then I started thinking about it… Yes, this robber guy took something that didn’t belong to him and yes, he is wrong and should fix his wrong, but the robber guys are not reading this passage… I am…
So what have I taken from someone else? Maybe it isn’t something material but maybe it is something just as important if not more … something like dignity, respect or esteem.. I hope I haven’t, but the reality of it is, I am human and there are things that I regret saying and regret doing. I would like to think that I have the wisdom and compassion now that I didn’t have years ago and if given the opportunity I probably need to apologize… why not? It might be giving back plus more… I’ll start with Moe…
Moe, I’m sorry I named you Moses P. Diddy Hall..( I’m sure that has to be a dignity issue when he is around other dogs), and I’m sorry I wasn’t respectful of your barking at 3:30am when I mumbled, “Stupid Dog!” For the most part you are a good dog.
Next, I am on to real people… Mrs. Ricker, I’m sorry for giving a smart alec remark when you were taking role in fourth grade. You may not remember but I have never forgotten it… and since I can’t give back that respect, I do want to tell you this….. One time in church you gave your testimony about feeling called to be a missionary….You said something to the fact that you weren’t sorry for your life as a teacher, mom and wife as it was but you were sorry that you hadn’t been obedient when God called you into that ministry field. You then encouraged others to be obedient to what God had called them to do so as not to later regret… I remember it well and I took those words and eventually put them into practice. Thanks for that.
Now, who is next??
What have you taken from someone? Can you give it back?
The Prodygal Life 