THANKFUL THURSDAY...burying the bone!

We have 3 dogs. We have a large dog (a black mixed lab), a medium sized dog (a beagle) and a small dog (a silky terrier). As you can imagine they all compete with each other over everything. If we pet one...we have to pet all of them. If we feed one...we have to feed all of them. When we give them a treat....you guessed it, we give all of them one.

I love watching the dogs when we give them treats, each one does something different. The large one inhales it in one breath, the medium sized dog sniffs it first and then very gingerly enjoys her treat but the small one, she is the funny one. What she does with her treat is rather smart - she doesn't smell it, she doesn't inhale it, in fact what she does is she takes it and goes and buries it!

The problem is she really isn't burying it. She takes it and places on the floor in the corner of the family room, takes her nose and acts like she is burying it and then she sits and guards her treat. If one of the other dogs come near it, she "digs" it up and places it somewhere else. Except the whole while her treat is in complete view of everyone. It really isn't buried at all.

We laugh but isn't that exactly what we do sometimes?

We try to bury some things that don't need to be in our lives, the only problem is we just go thru the motions of burying it. The act of burying it sometimes isn't enough. When we just attempt to bury something but make no changes in our life, then it is still in the wide open for all to see, just like my little doggie does.

We can think that those burdens are buried, but in reality, they are still very much visible in our life. Not only to us but to others as well.

Many of us have "bones" in our life that we are guarding. We think if we could just keep it all to ourselves, nobody will see our "secret" place. The bones that we try to hide are things like emotional hurts, financial troubles, mourning of a lost loved one, loneliness, depression, and sometimes even sin.

If we are not careful, we can become like my little silky terrier and become consumed with our treats (our bones) (our burdens). We miss out on the joy because our "bones" have us so worried and fretful.

"Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest...for My yoke is easy and my burden light." MATTHEW 11,28,30

What a great encouragement to know that instead of focusing on my bones (my problems), I can focus on Him and He will give me peace. I am so thankful for His rest and His peace!

Do you have some bones that need to get buried? Completely buried!

IRIS is hosting THANKFUL THURSDAY this week. Please share your grateful heart with us over there today. Next week we will meet at Lynn's place for the month of October. What an awesome blessing to see so many thankful hearts...join us, won't you?