mo

I'm always doing these hypothetical social experiments in my head. They never come to anything but they create an enjoyable mental diversion from changing diapers and folding laundry. Here's my latest.

What would happen if we took one day and prayed about every decision we faced?

That's right...every. What's for breakfast, God? The tee shirt or the tank top? Which park should I take the kids to? You get the idea. What would happen, if, instead of just making decisions automatically using only our brains, emotions, task-list...we prayed about everything first?

It all started with a conversation we had at our "I've got a male child under 2" Bible study. (Ok, so that's not the real name, but it could be...because we all do.) We were talking about how easy it is to autopilot through life and not pray, even about the bigger issues (...like should I buy house A or house B? Or, should I take a part-time job?) let alone the small, mundane decisions of life. Eventually we got around to asking where's the line? Because none of us really felt like God expected us to pray over the decision to have toast or cereal. Assuming we have a functioning brain in our heads, I think it's safe to say we can make that call on our own. Yet, obviously I think God does have opinions on what house we buy or where we work. So, when it comes to prayer requests, how small is too small?

And before you get too excited, I didn't take on this hypothetical challenge. Maybe someday.

But I did make a decision to turn a specific matter over to God entirely and not move forward until He said so. It wasn't a huge life altering decision, but for whatever reason, I decided not to take matters into my own hands. (for once.)

It was this decision to get a dog. See, I've wanted a dog for most of the summer. So have the kids. In fact the whole household was in agreement on the issue except for one person. Jeff.

And Peter keeps irritatingly reminding me to submit. So while I knew that I probably could have gotten my way on my time table using various well-honed skills like flattery, cajoling, pestering and my personal favorite, Bambi eyes...I decided, just this once , to be quiet and wait. Well, as quiet as I know how to be.

Then one day before Jeff left for the Man-U camp out, he followed me down to the laundry room (one of the few that our children usually don't frequent) and said something that made me very happy. He said "I want you to get a dog." Not "Fine! I give up! Go ahead!", not " I suppose." but a wonderful, generous expression of him WANTING me to get a dog. Grin.

The hard part over, now I just had to find myself a dog. Now, my impatient and prayerless flesh, far more likely to go with Dog Right Now over Dog Right wanted to head to the shelter and grab the first one I saw, but I remembered how I had surrendered this one to God. So I let him know that I would really like to get a dog before summer was over so that the kids could bond before going back to school...and let him know I'd be checking the papers and the internet, and asked him to let us know which one was for us. Turned out looking for a dog can become a part time job. I was emailing shelters from here to Walla Walla and Spokane inquiring about dogs I'd seen on their sites. I scoured Craig's list. A few seemed like they might be the right one...a good breed, age, disposition...but then they'd get adopted by someone else, or I'd find out they weren't housebroken...etc. It was tiring, but I knew that God would show us when the right dog came along.

Then I found an ad on Craig's List for a sweet lab. Emailed the owner, who, it turned out, wasn't really the owner...she found the dog wandering around a couple weeks before, and picked him up to find the owner. Advertised, checked the shelters, all that, and nobody claimed him. Her name was Bonnie.

We sent three or four emails back and forth exchaning information. She wanted to be sure the home she was finding was a good one, so she had some questions for us just like we had questions for her. And in my heart I knew God had brought us the right dog. He sounded perfect. She graciously offered to let us take him for a week, and told us if it wasn't a good fit we could return him to her and she would find a new home. We agreed and started discussing arrangements with her to pick him up from her in Coeur d'Alene. As we emailed back and forth about schedules and what not we got to know each other a bit...she mentioned in passing that her grandfather had passed away a few days prior so certain days she would be unavailable. I also learned that even though she had no responsibility toward this dog, she took it upon herself in the two weeks she had him to have him neutered, got his shots, and had a microchip planted in his neck so he would be trackable if he got lost. I was impressed by her care for him. Eventually we figured out a day and time that worked for all of us, and we headed north to pick him up.

The meeting was good, though she was younger than I had supposed. I have an aunt named Bonnie so I guess by default I had imagined her as my aunt's age. She was much closer to my age. She sent us with some of his food and a packet of his health records. I emailed her the next day to let her know how the dog was, since she had obviously developed an attachment to him.

And for whatever reason, the emails just kept bouncing back and forth. I had a question about flea/tick control...she had a question about the information to register the chip under. She mentioned that they have a cabin here on the Snake where her husband fishes. Just friendly small talk...but I was enjoying getting to know her. Then she said something to the effect of "I've been going through a lot of the details of my grandfather's death, and have been have been really down today."

So I told her I would pray for her. In the initial emails I'd told her what type of work Jeff and I do...so she knew where we were coming from. The floodgates sort of opened after that and she had all sorts of questions about what happens when someone dies, what the Bible says about heaven etc. Without ever trying, I was finding myself in a golden opportunity to share about my faith. I recommended a Randy Alcorn book that was really encouraging and helpful to me after I lost my dad. (Later on I told my friend Beth about Bonnie, and she just happened to find that exact book at a yard sale for like a quarter, and bought it so I could send it to her.)

So what started out as me wanting a dog has kind of morphed into this new friendship thing. We've had the dog home for almost a month now and Bonnie and I are still in touch. We're finding lots of things we have in common, but I know one thing that is different about us is that she doesn't know Jesus. So I've been praying for her and just trying to be a friend...trusting that God will give me opportunities in the future. I've also been in a little bit of awe at how God's plans unfold. How this one small decision of mine to surrender to Him has spun into this completely unforseeable relationship that may someday become the beginning of someone's faith story. All centered around a dog.

So when I see this cute-faced, incredibly co-dependent, and slightly over protective pooch, I hope I always remember how much cooler it is to do things God's way than to push your own agenda. I don't think I would have been in sin to just get a dog the way most people usually do. But for whatever reason, God was asking me to let Him lead this one...and for whatever reason, I said okay. And it's been really cool. I know I've said that before but it's the word that keeps coming up in my head.

I'll not ruin this happy feeling by dwelling on how many opportunities we miss because we choose to make decisions based on pure logic or practicality or good planning. Instead I just want to focus on the positive side...that sometimes, when we yield our plans to His, we find ourselves caught up in something that's...big, and exciting and just...cool.