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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: DOG (08/09/18)
When we moved into the new home, we knew we were going to be a household of four, Mum, Dad, Sis and myself. But to our surprise, we were actually going to be 8, with 2 dogs and 2 cats joining the family. This wasn’t planned, they weren’t ours. In fact, we had never had dogs or cats living with us and it wasn’t part of the bargain. If we didn’t bring them with us, how then did they get into the house? Apparently, that house was a home to them more then anyone thought including their owners.



When their owners moved out of the house we just moved into, they got the dogs and the cats into a van and took them to the new house. This new house was a few blocks away from the old house and before they realised the dogs and cats had moved back into the old house which was now our home. They were not going to leave so we had no option but to allow them to stay. Let me just put this out there, we had no idea how to look after pets so this wasn’t going to be very easy for us as well. There were days that I forgot all about them and didn’t even feed them for a whole day.



Scrappy and Hunter were the names of the dogs. Scrappy was black while Hunter was brown and they were quite old but we loved them. We had so much fun living with them and we are always grateful to the Lord for the unexpected surprise. I was however, surprised by the fact that Scrappy and Hunter didn’t care so much about their owners. The place meant so much more to them than the people. And I think its because they were very familiar with the house and thus more comfortable living there.



But this was a huge risk they were taking with their new owners. What if the new owners did not want them, what if they had sold them to someone who would take them out of town or what if we just treated them really badly. All these questions didn’t seem to mean much to them. I guess they had some kind of dog faith I will call it. All they knew was that they liked the house and everything was going to be just fine. I guess we also had faith like Scrappy and Hunter because believed that though we had no clue what we were going to do with them, everything was going to be just fine.



I would say it is good to have faith live Scrappy’s or Hunter’s where focus less on life’s questions and just trust that everything is going to work out fine because God, our owner, is good and always in control. Especially when the people we are comfortable around move away to different places or find that we have to try to work with new people whom we might not be familiar with. If God’s got you there, He’s got your back.



But I do have to add that we should not be like Scrappy in staying back when the Lord needs us to move. As Christians, we follow our Master and Lord Jesus Christ, where He goes is where we go whether we are comfortable and familiar with the place or not. Because I find that most of us refuse to follow the Lord’s leading and promptings when He needs us to move because we always have so many questions.



Scrappy could have channelled this faith he had concerning staying with unfamiliar people to living in an unfamiliar place, though that wasn’t the case. When the questions we have about following God’s leading overwhelms us, we often have faith that staying back will be better than going. We should rather channel that faith into believing that everything is going to be fine when we go where God wants us because His presence is all we need. If the Master is there who cares about the place.



For all, I know Scrappy’s decision to stay back was less about him and more about my family. The Lord was working out an interesting plan for us which we had no idea about because we really enjoyed having the dogs and cats around. This story could go so many ways.
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This article has been read 375 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Leola Ogle
08/16/18
Great comparison to Scrappy and Hunter, and our Christian walk. I enjoyed this story. God bless.
Judy Sauer 
08/20/18
An interesting story. I like the parallels between the dogs and our relationship with Christ. Here are some tips:
1) For numbers ten and under, spell out the word. For anything larger than ten, the numeral is good.
2) Use the Preview feature and slowly read aloud your story. You'll likely catch that "then" should be "than." ...home to them more then anyone. Doing this has save me many Oops! moments.
3) Check out Jan's Writing Basics in the Forums for use of punctuation, such as commas. Lots of opportunity to learn. Helped me trememdously.

Nice story.
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Nancy Sullivan 
08/20/18
I especially liked the following lesson you present in your story:

'When the questions we have about following God’s leading overwhelms us, we often have faith that staying back will be better than going."

There are a few editing issues, but that's ok. We all have that at times. Overall, a very nice and enjoyable read.

Good job. I hope you keep writing. God Bless.
Bonnie Bowden 
08/23/18
Congratulations on your 2nd place in the Beginners category.

I like your illustration of life using dogs.