Lessons from dogs - Finding your bark
Arlo
I’ve always loved watching the dogs in my life and sometimes find God speaks through them in quite profound ways. My friend and house-mate Marilyn, has a large golden retriever guide dog called Arlo. Although big, he is extremely laid back and hardly ever barks. So the other week it was quite a shock, when Marilyn and I were both upstairs one day, to suddenly hear Arlo barking very big fierce barks. He was running back and forth excitedly downstairs barking furiously. What on earth had happened? We soon realised the window cleaner was at work and Arlo had gone into strong guard dog mode which he’d never done before. Eventually after Marilyn kept saying, ‘Arlo, quiet!’ he gave a disgruntled little half bark as if to say, ‘I’ve only just found my bark and the joy of using it and you want me to stop already?’ It made us laugh but then I felt the Lord was speaking to me through it. Prior to that, it had seemed that Arlo almost didn’t have a bark as it just never happened or if he did bark it was rather wimpish and apolologetic, not at all what you’d imagine from such a big dog. But we realised that day, that his true, deep ‘manly’ bark was within him all the time, just waiting for the right moment to be expressed.
It made us smile and feel joy on his behalf when he suddenly found he had a bark. The Lord said to me, ‘do you realise how much joy I feel when you discover and start to use the unique traits and gifts I’ve woven into your life? Just as Arlo’s true bark perfectly fit his size and character, so your traits and gifts perfectly fit you. Don’t hide them or apologise for them but dare to let them out of hiding and dare to know the excitement of living them on a daily basis.’
I found that a very profound and wonderful message and hope you do too?
The next day when we were hosting a Christian group at ours, one of the guests brought her tiny poodle with her. Arlo was fascinated by Waffle and as they played, neither dog seemed hindered by the fact thst we were trying to worship and study the bible together, they chased up and down the room and wherever Waffle went, Arlo happily followed. Again I sensed the Lord’s great delight in their fun and the fact that the dogs, being very different in size and character, had a joy and spontaneity in their play which lifted us all up. The Lord said, ‘they are a picture of how I delight to make you all unique. You don’t have to compare yourselves or try to be like one another. But I long for you to know the joy of my delight in you and to feel that delight as you learn to live fully as I made you to be.’
Waffle
If you, like me, need to find your true ‘bark’ and to know the joy of God’s delight in you, releasing you from the need to compare or apologise, then I pray that these ‘dog lessons’ will touch you deeply and you too will find that freedom to enjoy your own bark.
