.:: a few thoughts on the subject by rob wright ::.

i think pet stories like marie’s are great to tell kids, a real descriptive way to teach a lesson. i’m saving the “i helped kill my dog because i didn’t obey my parents story” for elliott and ethan. not that i like telling the story, it’s just a terrible lesson that i learned about consequences, and i don’t want my boys to experience that. it goes like this…

when i was a kid (0 - 12), we lived in a rural area in knoxville. our house was up a hill at the end of a long gravel drive way. dad and mom had 3 acres in the woods, and it was a great place for boys. unfortunately though, the road curved around our property, so it was difficult to see oncoming cars when you pulled out of the driveway. i can still hear my mom preaching to me and my brother that we should never, ever play near the road. this was particularly tempting because there was a creek on the other side of the road.

so, one day i slowly worked my way toward the road. i can’t remember specifically why, but i do distinctly remembering that i was disobeying; but i was careful and what could really happen. i was almost to the road when i heard the squeal of tires. i then realized that my dog, a beagle named patches, had followed me to the road and was hit by a car. even though i was young, i quickly realized that my dog was only near the road because he followed me. i felt terrible.

the driver of the car stopped and was very apologetic. my dad told him that he understood, then put patches in a wheel barrow and rolled him up our driveway to be buried later. i ran to my room crying.

i later went to look at patches in the wheel barrow and noticed that his eyes were open. i ran to my dad with the hope that patches was still alive…that’s when i learned that you could be dead and your eyes still open. it was a sucky day, but for the following few weeks i was a perfect child. later we got another beagle, lucky, and i never made the same mistake.

it kills me to think that elliott and ethan may have the same experience, and that’s why they will probably hear this story more than once in their life. i don’t want them to feel that pain. as a parent, i can now better understand how in the same way God gives us the Bible as a guideline for living. there are many rules/laws in the Bible that are designed to help show us that we aren’t perfect and that God requires perfection. but many of those same rules are to protect me from the consequences of sin. in many ways i’m still the 6 yr old robbie wanting to play near the road and God my Father is reminding me that there are consequences to disobedience. i need that reminder every day.