THE NEW EWE

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'"

Luke 15:4-6

June 1, 2022

LIFE IN THE FOLD

Jon and I have a dog that is half bichon and half poodle. Sammie will be 10 years old next month. We got him when he was 2 months old. What's funny, is that he is considered a senior adult dog now, but we still call him our puppy.

Sammie loves Jon, but he really loves me! He is very protective of me, and will even growl at Jon sometimes if he's lying on the chair beside me and Jon walks over close to us. At night, if I go to bed first and Sammie is lying on the bed beside me, he will growl at Jon when he comes to bed. Nowadays, Sammie mostly sleeps in the recliner in our bedroom, but he growls at Jon as he jumps off the bed to run over to it. When someone rings our doorbell, we have to hold onto Sammie or he will bark and run out the door, if we don't have ahold of him. He's trying to get whoever is there to go away. Even when we have a lot of family come, we have to put him upstairs in our bedroom, or he will bark and run at everyone who comes.

But when I have my nephew and niece's kids here, Sammie is very kind and friendly and does well with them. He somehow knows that they aren't a threat to me. Granted, he gets jealous when they want to sit on my lap and he can't get up beside me; but he is very good with the kids. They get a little irritated at times with him being a bit too friendly and wanting to lick them!

Sammie doesn't shed and his fur grows pretty quickly; or so it seems, when we have to pay so much to get him groomed. We've tried trimming him ourselves, but he does not want us doing that and will growl at us and run away. Even when we take him outside and put him up on a table with a leash attached to hold him in place, he still doesn't like us grooming him very well. I give him baths in the kitchen sink, but he's not a big fan of that, and after a few minutes will start growling in his throat and wanting out.

Recently, his hair had grown pretty long and thick and he was a mess. We tried giving him some trims, but he wouldn't let us do much.

We have catkins that fall from all of our pecan trees in late spring, and those little green things are a huge mess! They cover our yard like a thick carpet. Every single time Sammie went outside, he would be covered in them! They'd get caught on his belly, his feet and legs, and on his face. Even when we tried to clean him off every time, he still ended up tracking them into our house. I could not keep the floors cleaned!

We took Sammie to get groomed last Saturday. We told the girl that he's almost 10 and sometimes can get a tad grumpy.... and that last time he wouldn't let them grind his toenails. When we picked him up, she told us that he is so sweet and did so good, and ask us to please let her groom him next time. Whew! We were relieved that he had done so very well! Now that his hair is cut short all over, he doesn't get those catkins trapped in his fur.

The thing is, when he was tracking all of those catkins into the house, he was oblivious to all the work he was causing us. He wasn't intentionally trapping them onto his fur; but he was out walking where they were, and they were attaching themselves to him. The result, was that he was being affected by the catkins, and in turn, was making it an issue for us.

Sometimes we don't mean to be affected by the sin of the world around us. We aren't intentionally going out and doing wrong, but the filth of the world attaches itself to us; which in turn, causes a problem not only for ourself, but for others.

It may be by who we are listening to, what we are reading, the things we watch, the people that we are associating with, etc. We allow things to infiltrate our thoughts, and often think that we can filter out the bad; but if we aren't careful, we can become negative or critical or begin thinking that things that are sin aren't quite so bad.

At first, when the catkins began falling, Sammie would only have maybe one or two occasionally attach itself to him. But as more and more began to fall and they grew thicker on the ground, it became harder for him to walk out into our yard without his coat being covered.

As things grow worse in the world around us and sin becomes more prevalent, people's hearts and minds are going to become more and more resistant to God, until they become hardened and think that they have no need of Him. It's easy for christians to become desensitized to the nudging of the Holy Spirit, as the church allows the thoughts and beliefs of the world to filter into their faith. In order to try and draw unbelievers into our congregations and to befriend them, we find ourselves letting down our guard and partaking of some of their activities. Things that we used to be convicted about and call sin, we have justified that "it's not really that bad".

The only way that we are going to stand strong and finish our life's race with strong faith, being unspotted by the sins of the world, is to keep our "coats" free from entanglements that will try to entrap us. We can only do that by making sure our life is always covered by the blood of Jesus and that He keep us clean and spotless. We can't do it in our own power and strength! It takes us daily, sometimes even hourly, going to Jesus and allowing Him to groom us and keep us free from the filth of the world that we live in.

When we resist, it will become easier for ungodly things to attach themselves to us. Then when we "growl" when Jesus tries to convict us and cleanse us, it not only has an affect on us, but will affect our family and those closest to us.

Even if we allow ourselves to get on the wrong path for a while, and end up covered in "catkins" that seems to be embedded in our lives, Jesus can always make us new. He can prune away all of those sinful things and cleanse us and get us to the place where we need to be. But it is so much easier and better, for ourselves and those around us, if we keep ourselves under the covering and protection and care of Jesus; allowing Him to keep us groomed and clean!

JON'S PERSPECTIVE:

We did find a way to get Sammie to cooperate, at least for short periods of time. He is completely treat oriented. If I have a treat in my pocket, he will endure almost anything for a minute or two. I have to keep giving him treats to keep him cooperating. But it only works for a while. I suspect the groomers give him treats once in a while, and only groom him for 5-10 minutes at a time. But we haven't watched to see if that's true.

I don't think he cares one bit whether he is neat and clean. In fact, if I'm not sneaky about it, he gets grumpy if I pull the catkins off his face. It's almost like he thinks they make him look better.

But now that he has been groomed, and his hair is too short for the catkins to cling to him, he does seem happier and more energetic. He doesn't have us picking at him so much, but I think he is also cooler, more comfortable, and natural. It is how he was meant to live.

For some of us, changing our lives to give up sin can be easy and natural. For some of us, it can feel traumatic. But in time, it does feel cooler, more comfortable, and natural. It is how we are meant to live.

ON THE MENEWE:

Strawberry Vanilla Cake

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans.

Prepare cake mix according to package instructions and pour evenly into the two pans. Bake as per directed on back of cake box. Cool a little, then remove from pans. Allow to cool completely.

To assemble:

Place one cake on a serving plate.

Put 1/4 of frosting in a small ziplock bag. Snip off one corner. Pipe a beading of frosting on top of cake around outer edge. Fill remaining area with strawberry jam, spreading evenly across top of cake.

Top with second cake.

Spread remaining frosting on sides and top of cake to cover.

Decorate with fresh strawberries, if desired. Sometimes I slice the strawberries and press into the frosting around the outside edges of the bottom of the first cake layer; and/or around the very top of the cake in a pattern or around the edges.

This is an easy cake, that looks like you spent more time making than you actually did!

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER:

My nieces two kids, ages 13 and 8 were recently having an argument about which of them was more famous. Jax: "I was on Channel 6 News twice in one day." Jovie: "Well, I'm a published author, and I'm only eight!" (I think Jax was in a group picture for something on the news at one time -- it wasn't a story about him! And I think that Jovie had something she wrote published in a school paper. They are only famous in their own mind!)

THOUGHT TO PONDER:

Never let the presence of a storm cause you to doubt the presence of God. - Craig Groeschel

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO YOU:

We love you!

Loretta & Jon

http://www.graysheep.org