which she prefers over the blanket.
Lily is old and wise. She can only hobble around because she has stiff joints, and her eyes are milky with cataracts, but she gets where she wants to go. She rarely comes up to the house with the other dogs.
One day, there was a severe weather warning, though the sky was perfectly sunny. With hardly a cloud in the sky, Lily came up to the house and found shelter in the hay bales we had stacked under the carport. She had not seen the weather channel, but she had gotten the message somehow that it was time to take cover.
An hour or so later, a strong wind arrived so suddenly and with such force that we barely made it to the basement. My son heard the thunderous roar first and yelled that we should take cover. Hail the size of golf balls began to slash the window screens. We were not in the basement for even sixty seconds and it was over. A tornado had twisted through, leaving a trail of damage. We immediately checked on the animals, and there was Lily, safe and dry, peeking out from the house of hay.
I thought of the Isaiah verse encouraging us not to fear, and realized that Lily had exemplified fearless faith in action. She must have heard that still, small voice guide her to a safe place, and God was surely with her. She was not even trembling after the storm, but looked quite calm and content. Today, listen closely for God’s guiding voice in all of your circumstances. Lily’s fearless faith is available to all of us, all the time.—k.m.
The Kindness of Strangers
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
—Ecclesiastes 12:14
I have a friend, an executive with a deep love for animals, who, every day on his way to work, drove by a dog, noticing the creature and its environment. This particular dog was chained outside the owner’s home with no dog house in sight. As the weather got hot, my friend started for work earlier each morning, giving himself enough time to leave a big bowl of water and food anonymously for the dog.
Each time, the dog looked up at him with a grateful glance as he drank the water as if he were in a desert and this a once-in-a-lifetime rain. This ritual was repeated daily, and the dog began to wait in happy anticipation for his new friend. Another anonymous present one night was a big dog house. Then he added a portable dog kennel with a cover. With every new gift, the time he spent with the dog created a bond.
So, one evening when he saw a car in the driveway, he stopped and knocked on the door. The owner of the dog turned out to be a nice person who had just taken on more than he was ready for with a dog. He wasn’t mean. He was overworked and underpaid, and his circuits were just completely overloaded when it came to his life, and his dog’s care was just a reflection of that overload. As he spoke with my friend, he began looking relieved at the prospect of his dog going to a new home.
Instead of instantly criticizing the young man for his poor care of the dog, my friend spoke of his own growing love and attachment to the animal. Change did not happen because of judgment but because of love, the only true motivation for good.
All the good works in the world don’t pave our way into heaven. All our bad deeds don’t keep us out. To God, every heart and motivation is transparent, and he compassionately deals with all he sees.—d.o.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
