Getting skunked

At night, our dog Lucy usually sleeps quietly on the porch. The only things that stir her are thunderstorms and some other critter in the yard. Just so you understand, my dog is a small white Pekingese. If you know the breed, then you know they are braver than their size allows...especially if you are with them. So, sometime after midnight, she was actually in the front yard barking like crazy. My wife and I turned on the outside lights and saw that she had something cornered in the bushes. And while she barked ferociously, she did keep her distance from whatever it was that was in the bushes. And though we could not see it, our guess was that it was a skunk. You see, there are no cats in our neighborhood and the only thing we've seen around that size was a skunk. So, our first instinct was to open the door and call Lucy to come in. Remember what I said earlier about her bravery? Well, our intentions had the wrong impact on her. Now she was became really brave and went into attack mode. And that is when it happened...she got skunked. Right in the face. Oh yes, it was awful...but we're all better now.

It did get me to thinking though. Sometimes in life we allow ourselves to get into situations we shouldn't be in. At times it's just by chance, curiosity or sometimes just a bad choice. And while we see the danger in front of us, we usually just hope nothing happens. We are daily tempted to make bad choices. And, it may be easy to walk away on our on (or it may not). But how much harder it is to walk away in front of our "friends". Do your friends give you a bravery that you normally do not have? Do they entice you to make a bad decision? When was the last time you got skunked? I believe completely that God's promise to not tempt us beyond our ability to resist is true. He always gives us an escape. However, those around us can sometimes push or entice us to be brave just like my dog Lucy. Fortunately, we are smarter than dogs....aren't we?

...our hope endures!