Whose way?

I’ll never forget the first dog we owned as a family. Actually, it was the second dog. The first dog, allegedly a cocker spaniel was some mixed breed that could jump over the house. We were never able to tame him. He was like a maniac kangaroo.

But Amy, now she was the greatest dog ever. A yellow lab, named after the President’s daughter, was a puppy producing machine. Obviously, we didn’t get her for that reason. Actually, she was a gift from a friend.

But when we bred her the first time, she had 17 puppies. The second time, I think she had 14. Our kids were all in a private school and we used the money from the proceeds of the puppy sales to pay for their school. I wanted to change her name to tuition.

I thought we had such a good thing going that we bought a second lab expecting the same results. You see, we needed to raise some money to pay our Capital Campaign Pledge for the Church. Chelsea (also named after a President’s daughter) was the wildest dog in the universe. And, as luck would have it, her first litter of puppies was from the mixed-breed dog next door. Cute dogs but totally worthless from a sales perspective.

Doesn’t God have such a great sense of humor? We thought we were breeding dogs to have extra money to give to Him. But He had other plans. He’s like that. His ways are not always our ways. But at the end of the day, I’ll take His ways. He provided the money we needed some other way. I don't even remember how!

My ways, your ways, His ways...His ways tend to work best. Try quitting your way and embracing His way. No matter how bad life seems, if you're looking, there's always Hope!