Sally, Ricky Bobby, and Jesus

So what brings me back to the blog?  A "crazy dog lady" story, Sally, Ricky Bobby, and Jesus, of course.  Hey, if God speaks to me through these things, who am I to question?

Each morning, the routine is the same, one dog wakes me up, usually about 5 minutes before my alarm rings, and the next one gets up, shakes, and heads me down the stairs to let them out and start my coffee. When they come in from outside, I feed them breakfast. Since they tend to be fat chubby corpulent portly plump  under-tall for their weight, I've started mixing in a diet food with their regular kibble.  Evidently the diet food is beyond incredible, because they both love it.  However, I need to measure their food, so only one dog can be fed at a time.  We're talking a wait of seconds until Dog Two gets her share.  However, seconds might as well be an eternity, as Lowla (dog 2) dives into Annie's bowl, foraging like their's no tomorrow.  As Sally puts so eloquently in the famous A Charlie Brown Christmas, Lowla just wants "what I...I have coming to me...All I want is my fair share".  I have to physically move.her.head from Annie's dish, and guide it to her own dish, two inches away--full of food for her.  She will always get her fair share, and she will always be fed, but, ingrained in her little Dachshund head is the Ricky Bobby principle to life:  "If you're not first, yer LAST!"

Try as I might, I'm guilty of the first and fair share mentality.  Ouch.  Want examples?  Well, THESE are simply some I can think of from the last week.

• When stuck in traffic, I think, "Where did all these people come from?!!"
• I've interrupted both my daughter and my son this week, probably sure that what I had to say was more important, so should be heard (first). 
• I'm always disappointed for my husband when he's not bumped up to First Class on one of his transcontinental flights, because, after all, he's tall, and he puts in so many miles that he "deserves" it.  
• I was hard-pressed not to roll my eyes and help the grocery clerk do his job a little faster and more efficiently, so I wouldn't have to wait in line as long.  And I nearly helped the customer in front of me unpack her merchandise onto the conveyor belt, because she was chatting, and unloading her groceries one-handedly and haphazardly.  Thinking to myself, "Move, dammit!  This isn't rocket science.  I have to be somewhere."  I might as well said aloud, "I'm very busy and important--outta my way."
• I grow weary of waiting on God's timing for our adoption, and wish it would just happen--homeless child = ready.  Parents = ready.  Come on, already.

Can you find any grace in those examples?  I can't.  Can you find any dependence on God?  Any evidence of the following?

But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Matthew 20:26-28 NLT

God, has gently convicted me, through silly movies and sillier dogs, that I've got a long way to go in the following Jesus department.  Just as Lowla will get her kibble and every good thing from me, I know that God has great plans for me, and gives me nothing but His best, in His perfect time.  So thankful He never gives up on a contrite heart. So grateful that he loves me despite having to metaphorically move my head out of another dog's feeding dish.  Praying that He would create a clean heart in me, and renew a steadfast spirit, as He continues to complete the work He has started in me.  

While I'm praying, do let me know how I can pray for you, today.  What's God laying on your heart?