Chris,

Sorry about the delay on your question. My dog merely showed me that daily
habits can be so engrained into us that they can take us further away from
our paths we are on.

Brad


At 05:27 PM 1/14/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>i'm sorry Brad, i don't think I totally completely follow what your dog
>tought you...  i'm trying to follow, but it's still seeming a little gray...
>Sorry... hope I'm not being a neucence by having you explain... LOL!  Smile.
>
>
>Chris.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "BD" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 5:11 PM
>Subject: What my dog told me
>
>
> > Now before you think I'm totally cracked. Let me clarify my dog doesn't
> > talk to me, she whines pretty good when however she wants a treat or
> > couchtime, but I can assure you she does not talk. Nonetheless she showed
> > me a great lesson within a fraction of a second this morning. Each night
>my
> > son would call the pup into his room to have her quote,  "sleep at Mike's
> > house", as we so fondly call it when she sleeps in the room of someone.
>For
> > months on end he'd call her in there, and in the morning I'd wake Mike up,
> > the pup would come flying out, wriggling her butt jingling her tags on her
> > collar, and wanting to go outside to do what dogs do when they get up and
> > want to go outside. Upon her return from that duty, she invariably would
>go
> > to the top of the basement stairs, turn around and look back as if to
> > say... "I'm going down to sleep at Amber's house now, OK?", and then she
> > turn and rumble down the stairs to not be seen from until my daughter
>Amber
> > would arise or perhaps even later. Now you and I both know the next best
> > thing to a dog's bed is the kitchen. Our little pup, is constantly
> > underfoot trying to sniff out secret droppings off the counter top, or any
> > little fragment that she happened along. She stands guard better than a
> > Mexican border control in search of any morsel. If at night she will give
> > up lap time, a good petting or just about anything to get in the kitchen
>if
> > someone is in there rattling around. Why? It is instinctive to a dog to
> > eat. I mean after all it isn't the taste of the food there because most
> > things she swallows whole and never touches a taste bud on her tongue. It
> > is her instinctive response to survival, to eat when you can what you can.
> > If there is provision, if there is sustenance, if there is something that
> > is an inherent need, she will discount anything else and pay attention to
> > that instinct. This morning was an exception in which in a split second
>not
> > only did it recognize what she did, but god, not my pup, spoke to me a
>life
> > application of what my dog just showed me. As any other day, the pup came
> > out the room, went outside and returned again, but as my wife was cooking
> > eggs, with pans rattling and eggs sizzling, she walked right past the
> > kitchen, went to the top of the stairs and without missing a beat rumbled
> > down the stairs for her early morning nap. It occurred to me how that
> > ingrained habit of waking up, going out, coming in, and going down stairs
> > was so engrained in her, that she allowed it to subvert an instinctive
> > behavior of eating food. What seems to be extremely important to her was
> > blinded by a simple habit which stopped her from doing what is inherently
> > her duty of survival. It occurred to me how we can fall into that trap as
> > well, to have daily habits which we do, that make it impossible to
>consider
> > what we ought do. We can become so programmed to a habit, a thought
>pattern
> > that we not only fail to consider an alternative to our time or path, that
> > we subvert what we are destined journey. Habitual behaviors are good, if
> > pointed towards a goal worth meeting, such as a habit of a morning Bible
> > reading, but some habits are just habits we've picked up without realizing
> > it even and can rob us of time, resources, or money even. The first part
>of
> > this lesson is complete, recognizing the benefit of the lesson, the next
> > lesson for me is now prayerfully applying that knowledge, that little
> > lesson God showed me through my pup, and how it applies to my life
> > currently. Are you caught up in a habit which might pull you further from
>
> > your destined journey? Have you taken a look at your daily life to see if
> > perhaps you too haven't entered into a routine which you do because you've
> > always done it that way, or spent that time doing this or that? I'm sure
> > yawl have heard the old joke of the mother and daughter in the kitchen
> > cooking ham? No? Well I'll tell it then won't I. lol. Two women are
> > preparing a ham dinner. One lady grabs the ham and whacks off three inches
> > of one end and tosses it out and slips the ham in the pan and starts to
> > prepare it for cooking. The other lady says... "Why do you always do
>that?"
> > "Do what?" the first lady said. "Toss away the end of the ham like that,
> > that is perfectly good ham.". The first lady defends her action by
> > explaining that her mother had always done this from her earliest
>childhood
> > recollection, and that is was undoubtedly to cut off the dry end of the
> > ham. That she has always done this and it is just what you do when cooking
> > ham. Little did the lady know or realize, that the reason her mother had
> > always cut off the end of the ham was that her pan was three inches
>shorter
> > than the ham and needed to cut if off to get it to fit. Sometimes we do
> > similar and miss a greater opportunity or facet of our journey by failing
> > to  recognize those habits which draw us further away.
> >
> > Brad
> >