Pam Padgett - teacher
Rom. 14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, ...
There have been times when I have not been in peace in some area of my
life and didn't know what to do about it. But when I have turned to God
and asked Him to help me and waited until I was shown what to do by
God, the way given to me led to peace.
My young dog sometimes very actively seeks my attention, jumping on
me or starting to chew on something she shouldn't. This most often
happens when I'm talking on the telephone. One day several weeks ago it was drawn to my
attention that this was a real problem for me, distracting me and
keeping me from doing what I needed to do in peace.
I turned to God asking for help with this, and was reminded of a
large dog crate I have. I immediately got the crate from the basement
and set it up. The next time the dog tried to distract me from what I
needed to do, I put her in the crate and gave her a treat. She laid
down and seemed very content until I finished what I was doing and let
her out. It was amazing to me how easy this was to do and how well it
worked. I've left the crate setup and have used it several times with
no problems at all. The dog seems to like the crate, even choosing to
go into it on her own just to rest.
And, most importantly, I am able to deal with what I need to do in peace.
---
Another example was several years ago when I was still working. I
had installed a dog door in the side garage door that led to a fenced
yard. While I was at work my two dogs could freely go between the garage and the yard. At the time I thought it was critical for the dogs to have free access to go outside. This caused a problem, however, because
the dogs sometimes barked when outside, bothering one of the neighbors. I tried various
things to train the dogs not to bark, but nothing worked. There seemed no way to live in peace with the dogs and the neighbors, and I prayed asking God to help me.
One Saturday I was home all day and the dogs were inside the house
with me. The Holy Spirit drew my attention to the fact that the dogs
had been sleeping for most of the day without even wanting to go outside. This clearly showed me that the idea I
had that the dogs needed to have free access to go outside throughout
the day was not correct. The dogs could easily stay in the garage while
I was at work, and I could let them outside for a while when I came
home for lunch, then they could stay in the garage until I got home in
the evening.
This plan brought much more peace with the neighbors. In addition, I
was surprised to see that the dogs were much calmer when I got home in
the evenings, bringing more peace for me as well.