This last weekend my husband and I decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and dusted off our to-do list and headed outside.
It wasn't too long into our raking and digging that we discovered a broken sprinkler. Story of our lives, right?
So we put everything back in the garage and got in the car to go to our favorite home repair store.
Not two blocks down the road we noticed a large male pit bull on the side of the road.
My husband gets the pit into our car and we head back to our place.
After getting the rather friendly guy into the backyard for some food and water we headed back to our car to try again for the store.
And guess what?
Even before getting in, we spotted another one.
This time it was a red golden retriever. Actually, we have picked this one up before. I remember because the poor pup had such a terrible coat back then, and it didn't have seemed to have gotten any better since.
Ok.
In the backyard this new one went.
And only by God's amazing grace did both the young pit bull and the old retriever get along just fine enough for me to think it was okay to leave them alone together.
Off to the store with our eyes peeled for a possible third overnight guest.
Seeing that our local animal shelter closes early Saturdays and not even opened on Sundays, we knew our new guests were going to be with us for awhile.
Now, we have had strays stay the entire weekend with us before, but not two of them, and not ones that really liked to bark!
These poor dogs really were crying for attention - day and night.
I was getting really embarrassed of having these two bark so much and so often. I woke up at least seven times last night from their barking and knew that I couldn't have been the only one. Our poor neighbors. My poor husband. The poor dogs.
I got up earlier than normal this morning and took the two their breakfast. After playing with them for a bit I realized that serving, whether it be to people or dogs, is not always how we expect it go.
To serve is to sacrifice.
I have never really viewed serving as such before. My service in the past has always been so uplifting and inspirational. Not embarrassing or harboring feelings of shame.
But it is true. Serving often means sacrificing.
I was sacrificing a good nights sleep to serve these strays. And it just so happened that probably others had to sacrifice that as well.
