Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday August 2, 2006

Several of my readers are upset with me due my often referring to dogs. I write about dogs, large and small and have a huge place in my heart for the furry creatures called by knowledgeable humans as 'Man's best friend.' The statement is of course removed by one count from the truth. Jesus is mans best friend, and then the dog. I sometimes think the dogs know when the Lord is drawing near to comfort as they will kind of stick like glue and 'just be there' with you. They seem to know when you are hurting.

Having said the above you can imagine my pain as I read a few remarks from sincere readers in the past few days.

Dear Dr. Lilly,

Has your life totally gone to the dogs?

Dear Larry,

I don't care about your dogs, I have a wife.

Editors Note: Any idea how I struggled to restrain myself from the openings created by this?

The other day we were attempting a training exercise with Molly, the wife's rescued canine of about a year. Molly is a case, what we call a tuxedo coat, mostly coal black with a small amount of white running down her front. Molly was responding well, when my grandson, Brady began fooling around with a laser pointer, placing the red dot in a place to get Molly's attention. Molly immediately left off the training exercise and started chasing the laser dot. Brady cackled, Molly frolicked around the room and The Great Blonde and I laughed until our sides hurt. I am amazed at the number of opportunities Joyce finds to rather firmly nudge my ribs with her elbow.

To demonstrate the morbidity of my old mental prowess I admit that right in the middle of this time of family hilarity, I thought of a comment made by a man who became so morbid that he died prematurely. Yet his statement is profound in that it puts the onus on the back of all of us. Freidrich Nietzche wrote:

"The most fundamental form of human stupidity is forgetting what we are trying to in the first place."

To get young married people to forget what they intended to do and start doing what God intended for them to do is called "Marriage Counseling." Counseling attempts to get their mind off of pouring the husband or wife into the spouses idea/mold of the perfect mate and by perhaps using a red dot, get them to chasing God's plan. This is not easy, but it can be done.

Dear Dr. Lilly,

Do you secretly like dogs better than you like people?

Editors Note: In that dogs cannot send offerings, I take the 5th on this one.

Larry Lilly Copyright 2006 Use with credit

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