Some people fear spiders, the loss of a loved one, not being able to have children, or flying in airplanes... But one of my biggest fears (right now), is the safety and well-being of our fur-babies. They are my children.
Their safety and well-being is one of my top priorities. It's so scary to say that their safety was at risk last night.
Scott let them out into the backyard to take care of business one last time before bed. When he went to let them in, they were nowhere to be found. Toward the back of our yard, Scott saw four pickets laying on the ground, with a hole big enough to herd a cow through. Of course they escaped, being the curious pups that they are. But the worse thing is that our house backs up to a very busy street. I'm sure you can only imagine the worry he was experiencing. I (thankfully) wasn't at home when this happened.
Scott ran through the hole and yelled out for dogs and sure enough they came running. They were about 200 yards away, running across the street with cars dodging them. Yes, we were that couple with dogs running across the street at 9:30 at night.
Mac's been known to be an escape artist, but the two of them together is just plain trouble! Praise Jesus that they weren't hurt or hit by a car during this whole thing. I was seriously so shook up, and so was Scott. I'm pretty sure they are still on Scott's shit list.
But the ironic thing is that I was coming home from small group, where we talked about last weeks session. The topic of last week was fear.
These are quotes from our member books that comforted me, not with just my fear with my dogs, but with all thing I feared. They might help you too.
"Once we are in Christ, Satan has no authority to destroy us, so he settles for the next best thing: threatening to destroy us."
If you're anything like me, then you are a worry-nut! But what I've realized over the last week is that most of the time the things you worry about, never happen to you! So why waste the energy worrying and fearing, when you can take risks and live joyously. We trust that the Lord will keep us safe. We don't just trust him to let us avoid what we fear the most, we just flat out trust him, even if something you fear becomes a reality.
"No one welcomes suffering. Equally, no one can wholly avoid it. Though most of what we fear never happens, our lists roll out so long that some of it probably will. Our only steadfast defenses against life's certain uncertainty is unconditional trust in a Savior who loves us more that His own life."
We can relate these quotes to the world we live in. Our everyday life. A school shooting. My dogs escaping our back yard. Losing your job. Your husband leaving you. Loved ones dying, etc, etc.
You would probably agree that these are all things we fear and worry about. But you have to trust in the Lord.
Tell yourself...
"If _______ then God will take care of me."
"If _______then God has a plan."
"If _______then God desires to accomplish something monumental in me."
"If _______then God's going to demonstrate His sufficiency to me."
God has your back no matter what.
