What My Puppy Taught Me

It’s about time I wrote a post about the light of my life. I honestly can’t believe its taken me this long to mention.

No, not my husband. I mention him all the time.

My girls. I am the proud mother of the two most beautiful Australian Shepherds you’ve ever seen. I’m serious. They are just GORGEOUS. Let me introduce them to you.

Meet Ellie. She is me in dog form. Ellie is a 4 year old ball of sass and fluff. She’s a Miniature Aussie. She’s quick and can turn on a dime, and it helps her to outmaneuver every dog that plays with her. As the pup after my own heart, she LOVES food, and has eaten approximately 9 hot dogs in one sitting, with absolutely zero side effects. Although she weighs less than 20 lbs., she’s a bossy girl who thinks she is a human, and she will tell you as much. She is my little princess and my favorite girl. I had her before I met Elliot and he fell in love with both of us.

And this, is Mollie. She’s happy ALL THE TIME. She is a total love bug and only wants to be close to you. She is a 4 month old disaster; Mollie loves to dunk her entire face in the water bowl and then drip it all over my kitchen floor. While Ellie doesn’t really care about toys, Mollie LOVES toys. They are her faves. She loves to carry them around the house. Mollie is a silly little girl, and since she’s a Standard Aussie, she’s already bigger than her older sister. But they really do love each other and like to play together and snuggle. Its precious.

Anyway, now that you’ve met them, here’s the story.

My husband was away all weekend, and it was my weekend to work, so my mom watched the girls. Finally, everyone was back home on Sunday night and the girls were loving being home with everyone together. Monday morning rolls around, and Elliot is getting ready to walk out the door for work, and Mollie realized that her dad was leaving. She sat at the gate as he said goodbye and whined just a little. He told her he had to leave and turned to go, and little Mollie rushes to grab her brand new toy and presents it to him, as if to say

“Look at my toy! Will you stay with me if I have a cool toy?”

And my heart broke a little bit. He left, and I went over and loved on her, assuring her that Mr. Octopus was, in fact, the greatest toy the world has ever seen. Mostly, I just wanted to remind her that I was there and I loved her.

My heart didn’t break because Mollie missed her dad. She’s a pup, and she had me and Ellie and was just fine. But I could relate to her logic.

“If you won’t stay for me, will you stay for the cool toy?”

“If I’m not enough, what can I do to interest you?”

“What can I do to make you love me?”

If my puppy can come to the conclusion that maybe she’s not enough, how much easier is it for us as humans to think that way?

We (especially women) are told far too often that we’re not enough, just as we are. We’re not trendy enough, not funny enough, not athletic enough, not attractive enough and we definitely don’t have enough on our resumes. We live in a world of comparison and if we don’t have what others have, then what we have isn’t enough. It doesn’t matter what we do or say or wear. The fact is, we can’t change what others think of us. We can’t change anything or anyone but ourselves.

You see, what Mollie did not understand was, it didn’t matter how cool Mr. Octopus was. Mr. Octopus could be the new Buzz Lightyear, and Elliot would still have to go to work because he’s an adult who has a job, and there’s nothing Mollie can do to change that that. Although she thought he was leaving to go do something more interesting, the truth is, he would like nothing more than to spend the whole day snuggling with his little girl. He adores his pup, and not because she sits pretty or has Mr. Octopus. He adores her because she’s a hot mess with a heart of gold. We love her when she flips her water bowl and when she gets all messy from playing in the dirt with her sister. We think she’s the greatest thing when she falls asleep on her back with her tongue hanging out the side of her face. We just sit there and watch her sleep, laughing at her dorkiness. She is loved when she’s good and when she’s not so good. She didn’t have to do anything to be loved. We love her because she’s our girl. And there’s absolutely nothing she or anyone else could do that would change that.

I think we are all like that. Even though we don’t understand it, it doesn’t matter how cool our toys are, or how we look. We are enough, just as we are. You are enough, just as you are, with no toys or tricks. You were created beautifully and wonderfully. Your Father loves you endlessly, and to Him, you are absolutely priceless, no matter what you do.

We are loved for who we are and whose we are. There’s nothing we can do to make anyone love us any more or any less. We are loved when we make a huge mess, just as much as when we are sitting pretty for a picture. Our value doesn’t change when circumstances change. People sometimes say some harsh things to us. Sometimes people walk out of our lives, and that’s okay. Not everyone was meant to stay in our lives forever. Sometimes people leave for a little while and they return later on. Either way, it doesn’t have anything to do with us and it doesn’t affect how much we are worth. What others do or say has nothing to do with our worth.

Let me repeat that.

What other people do, has nothing to do with our worth.

When I realized that Mollie thought that Elliot leaving for work made her less valuable, I made sure to give her all the lovings she could handle (which is a lot, that girl LOVES her belly rubs). I wanted to show her how much she was loved and how much she meant to us. We can do the very same thing to those we meet who may feel as though they are not enough. Take them for coffee, let them vent, make them dinner, give them a call. It’s not hard to show someone that they are valued for who they are, and not what they bring to the table. Mollie’s dad loves her simply because she’s his pup, and your Father feels the exact same way about you. We are not only enough, we are precious.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4