Running Away

Today The Kid in our house got a big fat spankin'! And I do mean big!! Of course he asked for it, as surely as if he'd come right up to me and said, "Please spank me now!" He had been whining, complaining, arguing, and being generally disobedient all morning and into the afternoon long. Then he just had to hand me the last straw - you know, the one that broke the camel's back! Well, it was my back and I broke - all on his little booty! When I was done, he glared at me and said, "I am running away." I told him I would miss him. Then to really get to me, I guess, he said, "and I'm taking Harry." looong pause...."I mean it, I'm ruuning away and I'm really taking Harry."

Harry is the wild (yet sweet) dog that lives with us. Well, most of the time he does. He belongs to us and has had several tags with our address on them. We feed him and even had him fixed. Thing about Harry is - he has a straying kinda heart - he just can't be a one-family-dog. He spends a lot of time checking out his options. The other thing about Harry is that he is an escape artist. Knowing he has a straying heart, we keep him on a lead in the back yeard. But he manages to get away anyway, sometimes even dragging the wire or chain along with the stake, behind him. Just about everyone in the neighborhood knows he is ours and we hope they'll just keep bringing him back when they can catch him. oh...and he always comes home...eventually.

Well, you can imagine my most immediate thoughts when The Kid said he was running away and taking Harry. (To be perfectly honest, my first thought was, "No wait, you stay here and let me run away, pleeeeease.") I almost busted out laughing at the picture of those two running away together - a boy and his dog. To keep from cracking up - I quietly and seriously got up and walked back to my bedroom. And would you believe who showed up one minute later, saying "I changed my mind. I'm not going to run away." Next thing you know we were huggin' on each other and all was well.

I still want to laugh out loud, just thinking about it! Don't you just know that God sees my waywardness and smiles, maybe even laughs out loud, just thinkin' "That poor girl thinks she can run away from me and just look what she's dragging along behind her. Why, she'll never get anywhere like that!" Yet He loves me and loves for me to crawl up into His lap and say, "I think I'll stay here for now."

Thank you, God, for loving this runaway child!