Within Bounds

Recently our kids brought their dogs, Charlie and Lucy, to visit us. They brought along a neat invention called an 'invisible fence'. Its a small plug-in-the wall portable unit that works with shock collars. All of that sounds a little mean until you realize that its more of a tingle that stops the dogs from crossing an invisible barrier. The nice thing is that they get used to this 'fence' and the kids can take it anywhere and have a safe place to let their dogs out without worrying about them wandering off.

Our backyard is on a hill and the sight of all that space to run was too much for my son-in-law, he wanted to let the dogs go free so he took off their collars.

It took a lot of coaxing, but finally Charlie followed him up the hill. Lucy,however, was much more reluctant.

Eventually, she risked crossing the line and when the two dogs finally realized they were free, they raced up and down the field. They were having such a good time with all that freedom they wouldn't come when he called to them. In fact, Eric had to physically catch them, pick them up and bring them back to the porch and put their collars back on.

Collars on, collars off, collars on - all this was a bit of confusion for Lucy and she raced beyond the invisible barrier across the hill. Fortunately, no yelping - no shock; her battery in her collar had died. Unfortunately, she was able to reach the two neighboring dogs who came over to check out what was going on.

It shouldn't have happened - I saw her crouch in submission - but the big lab must have taken exception to Lucy's friendliness with the Beagle and he took a bite out of her nose. Now we had yelping and dogs barking and scurrying - holding poor Lucy with a bleeding nose and trying to hang onto Charlie so he wouldn't get into the fray.

When it all died down and we had the dogs all in their place and Lucy's nose mopped up and the damage assessed - except for Lucy's sore nose, everybody was okay.

Here's a lesson for us. God's boundaries - even ones that seem to keep us from 'the good stuff' are there for a reason. He gives us rules and principles to live by - that others may perceive as being 'strict' or even 'old fashioned' - but they are for our good.

God is looking out for us. He is for us! He loves us and has a plan for our good - We need to trust those boundaries - those things in His word that don't always make sense to us - why we should or shouldn't do something.

When we think we might have a better plan - better think again!

Obedience keeps us out of trouble -and staying in the boundaries will keep our noses from getting bit.

All for Him,

Missy