My wife and I took our two dogs for a walk a couple of nights ago. We have an old basset hound and a one-year-old golden retriever mix. As we turned toward the home stretch, I looked up and saw a huge German Shepherd also out for a walk. I was just about to point him out, when he escaped his leash and came running at us. Since these people from our neighborhood had him out for a walk, I assumed he was a nice dog and was just excited. Still, I pulled our dog close to me on the leash and calmly awaited his arrival. Then he growled and attacked our puppy. A very stressful few moments occurred before we separated them. Don’t worry, she is going to be okay. I wouldn’t write a blog like that. She has a couple of deep bite wounds in her paw and a few other injuries but overall she is okay.

After the ordeal, after we had treated her injuries, after we had sat with her for quite a while, we were going to bed and started talking about what to do when a dog runs at you. We didn’t even know an answer. Honestly, I was considering taking my son’s baseball bat with us on future walks. We did a little research and found out about things like citronella spray (smell) and an automatic umbrella (sight). Obviously, I already knew about umbrellas in general, but it had never occurred to me to use one as a defense system against a 150 lb. beast. But apparently, it’s an option. So you can be sure we will take all that and more on our next walk.

Today, I got to thinking about sin in our lives. Most of us know the verse: “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy,” (John 10:10a). So we know that fact, but what do we do to make sure that doesn’t happen next time. Do we research? Do we put preventative measures in place? And honestly, how long does it take before we get lax in our guard? I can tell, even now, so soon after the fact, that I’m already thinking, “Ah, that won’t happen again. I mean, it would be nice to have that spray and an umbrella, but I probably don’t actually needto go get them. I mean, what are the odds?”

I wonder if I treat sin the same way. I’m pretty sure I do. I start off doing a lot of reading, a lot of preparation, a lot of safeguarding. But over time, I relax. My prayer today is that it won’t take more than one German Shepherd attack for us to take this seriously, for us to do everything we can to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Todd

 

This is Maggie. She’s doing well, as you can see.