“Mommm, Duchess stole Gumby and chewed his arm off! Now I don’t have any more toys! Can we go buy another one? Can we go now?”
“Seriously, Possum? Look at your toy box! Go play with the angry bird, or the rolling-on-the-floor-laughing raccoon.”
“I’m tired of those! Daddd… can’t I… Awwww, he’s got his nose stuck in that NOOK thing again, Mommm, why’d you buy that thing for him?”
“How come Duchess has to live here? And why does she always have to play with my toys? Mommm… now she’s drinking out of my water bowl! Hey! She’s getting too close to you. Mom! Don’t pet her!”
I know, what a silly way to start to a blog. Believe it or not, this scene takes place around the ranch regularly. But it gets much worse at feeding time. Pot Pie considers himself the rabid patrol of the feed bowl. Why? He fears one of his companions will take a nugget from his personal allotment. It’s as though his meal minus one nugget will render him to a death of starvation.
Think about the reality of the situation. Technically, the food isn’t Possum’s at all. Guess who bought it? Yeah, my wife and I. Want to know something else? While we can’t boast of great material wealth, we could, if we wanted to, buy enough dog food for Possum to swim in. While we have no intentions of doing that, we would never allow Possum to go hungry, or even miss a portion of his meal. But he doesn’t grasp that. In his mind, that modest bowl of food is all there is, and he’s not allowing one morsel to miss a trip to his stomach.
I wish I could tell you I’m not like Pot Pie at all. Unfortunately, I act a lot like him when it comes to my material possessions, and just like Pot Pie, they’re not mine to claim ownership of. The Bible speaks of us as mere stewards of God’s property. But, once again, just like Possum, when I fail to recognize where all good gifts come from, I go into the stingy hoarding mode. When I feel I have to protect my material possessions with armed guards and catch-dogs, I demonstrate unbelief in God’s ability to provide… and I sound a lot like…
“Mommm… Duchess is laying in my bed!”
Blessings for Thanksgiving Mike and thank you for being you…..
Blog post http://freedomborn.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/thanksgiving/
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I think I take too much granted my material possessions especially my nice comfy sofa. I really appreciate the feedback and the likes you post on my website, and I miss your encouragement and support. Please feel free to post whatever you think, whether positive or negative. You’ve been a real encouragement to the writing endeavours I pursue. Also I like your blog that you put things simply and in a way that I can understand them. They are a joy to read. Funny I just scrolled up and noticed you mentioned gifts and clinging on to them – do you think that can be applied to spiritual to gifts as well?
Thank you Mike I have always loved your gift of expressing your heart in such a unique way, I use animations as you know, but yours is very special it can’t be duplicated and what you shared is Truth we have so much and see so little can we ever really stop giving thanks…. I think I will do a post about that for you, to thank you for the prompt.
Christian Love Anne.
I have nominated you “The Versatile Blogger” award. Kindly refer to my latest post on this subject for further action. Congratulations and God Bless. !!! Michael.
Funny Post! Just remember, we can’t take our junk to Heaven! I’m sure God has a big enough garage for it, but we won’t care about it any more.
Hallelujah! 🙂
Thats ok Mike – you are not alone my brother. You should see how protective I am over this car…lol God bless my friend!
Michael,
Sitting here at Atlanta Bread Co. getting ready to write you know what, yes, my novel… I’ve just come from my bank where – for the second time, the “available balance” seems a lot lot lot less than it should. Anxiey-ridden again, I’m so glad to read this…
I’m going relax. And check it later C-A-L-M-L-Y. It’s not my money anyway.
Thanks, Carley
P.S. Didn’t even have to call bank; it was my fault, a simple but major substraction error. I recorded the check in my register, but did not subtract the amount. Duh! At any rate, I am so grateful God took the anxiety from me. God bless you, Michael.