This morning was like any other morning where Bj started waking me up bright early barking and pawing at my face. Every morning several of the dogs take different medications for different health issues. Bj has anxiety and needs his anxiety medication, Sasha and Mabel have skin allergies and need benadryl, but even though they all have different needs I make sure that each one gets the same amount of hot dogs even if they don’t need medications.
I cut up and divided the hot dogs like I usually do between all of them and they almost always sit and wait their turn. However, Mabel was being impatient this morning and snapped at my fingers too hard to get her bite, pinching my fingers together she hurt me in her excitement to be first. I pulled my hand back and told her to be calm because I wasn’t going to give her hot dog to the others.
In that moment I heard the holy spirit ask me how many times do we snap at God to get what we want? How many times do we try to push ahead and make ourselves seem more worthy to receive his blessings? How many times does God tell us to be calm in our excitement?
I wasn’t going to give the other dogs Mabel’s hot dog because it was meant for her, just like the other hot dogs were set aside for the other dogs. God isn’t going to give anyone else your blessings because they are meant for you and you’re not going to receive someone else’s blessings because they’re meant for them.
Proverbs 10:22 says, ” It is the Lord’s blessing that makes a person rich, and hard work adds nothing to it.”
We can try to push ahead and take what we think should be ours, we can work ourselves every second of every day for the rest of our lives and try to earn God’s blessings or we can simply wait on God because he is fair and just.
Don’t be mad when you see good things happening to other people because you don’t know the storms they have been called to walk through. God will never deliver your blessings to someone else’s house. Psalms 127:2 says, “It is useless to work hard for the food you eat by getting up early and going to bed late. The Lord gives food to those he loves while they sleep.”
Let’s start the new year by being happy for those who receive blessings from God and not be jealous of them.
By not snapping at the hand that feeds us and being patient while we wait on God’s timing.
By understanding that God loves us all and doesn’t look at our works in the world but at the intentions in our hearts.
In the end Mabel and all the other dogs got the same amount of hot dogs and the medications they needed despite their differences and they didn’t need to do anything extra to prove they deserved it. I simply did it because I love them all the same.