me and our daughter Christy came to visit but couldn’t bear to watch me being taken by gurney to the examining room. The doctors found a blocked artery they’ve been able to treat with medication.
I believe the beast called Satan has been using my health concerns to growl at me, putting unnecessary fear in my life. But I don’t have to let him make this monster bigger than it is. God reminds me in His Word that He is in control. According to Psalm 139:16, “All the days ordained for me were written in [God’s] book before one of them came to be.” He knew the days of my life long before I was born. I am in His hands.
Scary Larry—that is, Buddy—is not going to eat Squitchey. He’s a good dog. He was only a beast of my imagination. Satan is very real, but my Savior is protecting me from him. God is in charge.
I am learning once again that monster fear is not from God. So I think I’ll go over and visit my new friends Buddy and Belle.
I sought the L ORD , and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4).
Consider This:
Has fear created any monsters in your life? What are they? What makes them so scary? Which are imaginary and which are rooted in reality? Which Scriptures might cut them down to size and remind you that God is bigger?
A Time to Wean
God Grows His Children
You have to do your own growing no
matter how tall your grandfather was.
A BRAHAM L INCOLN
S ome young friends of mine are in Scotland right now with their two small sons. Dan shared a marvelous story today. It was too windy for his three-year-old to walk down the hill from preschool. When he asked Jayden if he wanted Daddy to carry him a little, the child answered, “I want you to carry me a lot!”
When I first got my dog Munchie, he wanted me to stay with him a lot—as in, every single minute!
Munchie had been a beloved pet whose owner could no longer care for him. He was put in a shelter, and then rescued. For a while, he lived in a desert-area foster home. But it wasn’t meeting his needs, so I agreed to take him.
Munchie was brought to me in the evening. I already had three other dogs. Because he was new, and because I wasn’t too sure about his bathroom habits, I decided to keep him by himself in my office overnight. Munchie decided otherwise. He whined and whined until I gave in and let him join his new pack on my bed so I could get some sleep.
Next morning, I took him back to my office along with the rest of my pups. That was fine—until I went to leave the room. He launched a full-scale doggie protest, howling and scratching at the door. Clearly he’d lost one too many humans and didn’t want me to leave his presence. Talk about separation anxiety!
I realized Munchie needed to be weaned of this clinginess in short order or I’d feel like I had a four-legged Siamese twin. Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but I couldn’t live this way! Fortunately, I remembered what a trainer had once told me. He’d suggested that leaving a dog alone for brief periods and then returning could help condition the dog to be without me. I decided to go and come frequently from that office so Munchie would see that he wasn’t being abandoned. After doing this for a couple of days, he got the memo and calmed down.
If Munchie had spoken English and was capable of expressing his feelings, he probably would have rejected my game plan. He might not have felt at all ready to be “weaned.” But as his loving new dog mom, I trusted my choice over his. In short order, my decision was confirmed by his adjustment.
There was a point in my life when I, too, needed to be weaned of excessive dependence on a key person in my life. In my twenties, I accepted a job with an uncle’s nonprofit health organization. My task was to write a weekly column on health and wellness that we gave away to various newspapers. I was learning on my feet. But my dad was an experienced writer who had done extensive reading in the health arena. He became my
I believe the beast called Satan has been using my health concerns to growl at me, putting unnecessary fear in my life. But I don’t have to let him make this monster bigger than it is. God reminds me in His Word that He is in control. According to Psalm 139:16, “All the days ordained for me were written in [God’s] book before one of them came to be.” He knew the days of my life long before I was born. I am in His hands.
Scary Larry—that is, Buddy—is not going to eat Squitchey. He’s a good dog. He was only a beast of my imagination. Satan is very real, but my Savior is protecting me from him. God is in charge.
I am learning once again that monster fear is not from God. So I think I’ll go over and visit my new friends Buddy and Belle.
I sought the L ORD , and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4).
Consider This:
Has fear created any monsters in your life? What are they? What makes them so scary? Which are imaginary and which are rooted in reality? Which Scriptures might cut them down to size and remind you that God is bigger?
A Time to Wean
God Grows His Children
You have to do your own growing no
matter how tall your grandfather was.
A BRAHAM L INCOLN
S ome young friends of mine are in Scotland right now with their two small sons. Dan shared a marvelous story today. It was too windy for his three-year-old to walk down the hill from preschool. When he asked Jayden if he wanted Daddy to carry him a little, the child answered, “I want you to carry me a lot!”
When I first got my dog Munchie, he wanted me to stay with him a lot—as in, every single minute!
Munchie had been a beloved pet whose owner could no longer care for him. He was put in a shelter, and then rescued. For a while, he lived in a desert-area foster home. But it wasn’t meeting his needs, so I agreed to take him.
Munchie was brought to me in the evening. I already had three other dogs. Because he was new, and because I wasn’t too sure about his bathroom habits, I decided to keep him by himself in my office overnight. Munchie decided otherwise. He whined and whined until I gave in and let him join his new pack on my bed so I could get some sleep.
Next morning, I took him back to my office along with the rest of my pups. That was fine—until I went to leave the room. He launched a full-scale doggie protest, howling and scratching at the door. Clearly he’d lost one too many humans and didn’t want me to leave his presence. Talk about separation anxiety!
I realized Munchie needed to be weaned of this clinginess in short order or I’d feel like I had a four-legged Siamese twin. Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but I couldn’t live this way! Fortunately, I remembered what a trainer had once told me. He’d suggested that leaving a dog alone for brief periods and then returning could help condition the dog to be without me. I decided to go and come frequently from that office so Munchie would see that he wasn’t being abandoned. After doing this for a couple of days, he got the memo and calmed down.
If Munchie had spoken English and was capable of expressing his feelings, he probably would have rejected my game plan. He might not have felt at all ready to be “weaned.” But as his loving new dog mom, I trusted my choice over his. In short order, my decision was confirmed by his adjustment.
There was a point in my life when I, too, needed to be weaned of excessive dependence on a key person in my life. In my twenties, I accepted a job with an uncle’s nonprofit health organization. My task was to write a weekly column on health and wellness that we gave away to various newspapers. I was learning on my feet. But my dad was an experienced writer who had done extensive reading in the health arena. He became my
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