Piper Lessons

Piper often misses out because she overestimates her size.

When I leave my house in the mornings, to go to work, I put a baby gate on the stairs. If I don’t, our big dog, Sandy, will go upstairs and scratch on my kids’ bedroom doors, until he wakes them up. I have no idea why he does that, but my teenagers do not appreciate being awakened before 7:00 A.M. on days they don’t have school, and so to keep peace among all of the living creatures in my home, I use the gate.

Interestingly enough, there’s usually a pretty large gap between the gate and the wall and our smaller dog, Piper, could easily squeeze through it if she chose too, but she doesn’t. One of her favorite things to do is to go back to bed, but she misses the opportunity because Piper thinks she’s much bigger than she really is.

She will sometimes growl at the bigger dog for no good reason. She seems totally unaware of their size difference. She will sit at the door on the porch indefinitely, waiting for someone to open the door a little wider for her although she could have easily walked through the opening that was already there.

On Piper, her overestimation of her size and the limitations she places on herself are comical. She’s such a silly dog.

But, I sometimes ask myself if I do any better. What opportunities do I pass up because I’m too old, or not qualified enough, or smart enough?

Sometimes God opens a door for us, just wide enough for us to step through. But, we don’t walk through it because we would prefer it to be wide open with a neon sign pointing the way and great fanfare leading us on.

More often than not, I have found that, that is simply not His way. When we take quiet time and pray, we are able to see the open doors around us and the different paths that become lit up. We become more comfortable stepping out into the spaces He provides instead of insisting on our own preferences of wide, bright, and loud.

We begin to understand that man’s ways and God’s ways have never been the same. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

And when we see an opening, we aren’t afraid to take it. My dog, Piper, reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂