A Dog Blog

        

        Our dog Cody…is a mutt.  Well, kind of.  He’s a rescue dog. No pedigree to flash or papers to prove anything.  But he is mine (yes, he should belong to our daughter, but I care for him more than the rest.  And yes, that is a parenting lesson on the “Care of Pets” I ‘ll one day figure out.) He is always happy and even with all the extra work for me, I really do love him!

         As I ran out of the house this week to get our youngest from dance, I thought Cody could ride with me.  He loves to ride in the car.  It doesn’t matter which seat or the heat, he just wants to go!

         No sooner had I opened the front passenger car door and thrown my keys on the seat, Cody proceeded to jump in.  As he jumped to the seat, he slipped on the keys and fell to the floorboard.  Although he wasn’t hurt, my keys caught on his dew claw.  (This is the upper “thumb” of a dog.) 

         Cody began to whimper with his left paw raised with the keys attached.  Of course I was tickled with the way he looked.  My white fluffy dog “holding” the car keys in the car as if to say, “Can I drive?”

         Because Cody didn’t “drop’ the keys, it took a short time to get the keys off.   I had to gently take them off while keeping his mouth from snipping at me.

         I thought of our parenting.  So often our children pick up what they think they are capable of. They stand in front of us, holding or telling us what they want or what they think they are capable of doing.

         Our children look silly, even paradoxical, “holding on to keys” that they aren’t capable of.  As cute as they are, we have to take away the keys and pray for wisdom to guide them to what they are capable of.

         Cody will not ever be able to drive the car but our children will.  It is our duty and delight to prepare them.  Let’s pray God will make it clear when our children are holding the keys prematurely and when they are ready, we will teach and guide them well!