Lessons from Ari: accidents will happen

After a very exciting photo shoot for It's Girl Time a couple weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night to walk in a little puddle. My immediate thought as I looked down into the cutest face ever was eeeew and Ugh at the same time. Ari had whined to leave the room but hadn't rang the bell, but still here I was standing, in now, that I could see, a puddle of yellow pee. This is TOTALLY unlike him...but in retrospect he had a pretty exciting day.


Because my husband was going with me to the photo shoot, we decided to make it an outing with Ari since two of the girls absolutely love him and another had yet to meet him (she now loves him too). The thing with Ari is that he has a very low tolerance for activity. A 5 minute walk and he's pooped. Five minutes with an excited 6 year old kid who is reminiscent of Elmyra and he's even more pooped.

So imagine him after 2 hours with 4 kids (and a couple adults) who were vying for his attention at various points. By the time we got to the car, he just looked "done". He had water then and then he drank another ton of water over the evening. Of course, we aren't idiots, we took him out to pee twice that evening but true to my husband's concerns, he actually did have too much water. Although, what could we have done? withhold water from the pooped pup? nope! That's inhumane.

So as I stood in the pee, I had a couple choices and I chose to NOT scream at the dog. For a number of reasons:
1. I heard the vet's voice in my head admonishing us that if we did not catch him in the act, that screaming or punishing him afterward would mean NOTHING. He doesn't have a brain like humans so there is no 2 + 2, if the moment had already passed.
2. It was 2 am and my husband was sleeping.
3. I got it. It really wasn't that big of a deal. Accidents happen right?

As I grabbed a ton of Lysol wipes and got on my hands and feet to make the puddle disappear, I thought about my own "maturity" in the situation. I am not usually this level-headed, especially not at 2am and would have still given a stern word to the clueless pup just to "vent". But no venting was necessary. Sure I was tired. Sure I was disappointed. But on some level, I just thought "accidents will happen".

Isn't our perfect heavenly Father just like that? Doesn't He extend us mercy and forgiveness and because of Jesus, none of us (who chooses Him), will get what we truly deserve? mmmmmm

But how does this play out in my day-to-day with other humans? Like my responses with Ari in times past, I've had moments of great impatience and judgement. Unfortunately, these happen most often with the one who is closest..my husband. I am usually able to restrain myself and extend mercy with the stranger, with the coworker and even times with the friend but not so much with hubby. Of course, before hubby, it was my siblings. The thing is I've got as much of a duty, well privilege to be patient and kind with those I live with as much as I should with the stranger.  I've got to learn to extend mercy; this is different from being taken advantage of but I think sometimes we can get too quick to judge, condemn or "show someone their error".

Patience is a virtue as the saying goes, but it is also a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Just as our Father is patient and merciful toward us, we should be with others...this includes those closest to you (spouse, significant other, child, parent or siblings) and the stranger, as well as the pet! ;)

A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel. (Proverbs 15:18)

Grace peace love (and patience),
Gia