Bulldog Care

AnnaBelle hasn't been feeling well. She isn't really sick or anything like that. She is just not 100 percent. Bulldogs can be that way. I mean let us be honest. They are not made well. No offense intended to the Great Creator, we humans monkeyed around with His design and voilà. They often have bad hips, skin issues, problems with their wrinkles, especially around their eyes and can over heat so easily due to brachiocephalas (smashed face.) We are blessed. We do have to watch AnnaBelle's delicate hips, but she has seem to avoid skin issues, problems with her wrinkles and eyes. She was born with a cleft palate but, thankfully, it almost seems as if that helps her breathe a little better. She has a vent!. I am not sure exactly what is wrong, but my spidey sense says it might be allergies. The pollen is high and that is her kryptonite: pollen. Just like humans, she gets sneezy, watery eyes, runny nose and a rolling tummy. Here is the funny part...it took Lola to inform me about AB this morning. Lola was taking care of her sister bully. Typically, the girls are at odds. AnnaBelle likes a lot of space. Lola wants to be on top of her. AnnaBelle has one favorite teddy bear. Lola wants what AnnaBelle has. There can be five pillows, blankets or beds laying around and Lola only wants the one AnnaBelle is on.

This morning, as I worked out, I noticed an absence of bulldog invasion on my yoga mat so I looked around to see this...Lola giving her sister a lot of love. It was almost bulldog spa day. in our house this is how we know a bulldog is "down." The other bulldog loves on them. Just yesterday they were squabbling over who got to sit next to Dad on the couch. But today, all the love was being poured out by AnnaBelle. More importantly, AnnaBelle was accepting it; eating it up.

As I study, I am taken in my Bible to Ephesians 4, the end portion in particular.

(verses 17 through 32). In this passage, Paul is teaching the people at the church in Ephesus that they had been given a brand new life through Christ. Atonement theory in the crucifixion explains that we have that new life because we have been cleared of our sin and throughout a deep relationship with God, now made possible, and the indwelling fo the Holy Spirit we have the ability to be new, different...read, NOT THE SAME AS WE WERE. And NOT THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE that doesn't know Christ.

As I look around and see how people have been speaking to and treating each other I wonder about the new life. It seems many of us have been "new" so long the new seems to have worn off, something that isn't supposed to happen. Pauls describes what new looks like: anger doesn't make a home in us, we work hard, our mouths produce talk for building up, not tearing down, and most importantly... they are kind to one another, tenderhearted, and forgiving of one another. 

How do we live as the bulldogs live? With a new life. We are reminded in Christ, what has been done in us. What has been done? We have had a major overhaul within us that urges us to love as we have been loved by God. God loves us in spite of our imperfections, God loves us beyond those imperfections. God has forgiven all the actions that have grieved God's Spirit in the past. The words Paul used was that we are to forgive "as God in Christ forgave you." 

Often we justify our words, our actions because: we are right, this is what the law of scripture says, or the law of the land, all as we interpret it, or want it to be, or people need to stop being so sensitive. Have you thought about how your words, actions, Facebook posts, comments, replies wound someone that is maybe not 100 percent right now. Or maybe they are, and your words, actions, posts, etc. just grieve God.

I mean let's be honest. If a bulldog that only has two working brain cells (Bless her) can figure this out; show self-control and empathy for the one that she is most oppositional with, can't we???

Today:

• Explore your new life in all its glory
• Share your new life with another
• Or just be