Charlie's Purpose...

It was a cool February night and Lauren and I were about to go over to our friend's house for game night. Lauren was getting Price ready, so my job was to let Sadie (our 9-lb Maltese) out to relieve herself. I opened the door and in the shadows stood this big black dog. The dog scared me half-to-death, so I frantically called for Sadie to hurry back inside. I went outside and chased the dog off, hoping that the dog would go back through the woods and return to it's home.

We returned home around midnight, so I opened the door to let Sadie use the bathroom one last time before we went to bed, and guess what I saw...the big, black dog. This time she was laying beside the back door like she was waiting for us to come home. It seemed to be a sweet dog, so I pet it and Lauren told me to give it some water. Surely the dog would return home during the night. I got up the next morning and took Sadie out. To my surprise the dog was in the same spot by the back door. Lauren and I are suckers for dogs, especially sweet ones, so we gave it a little food. I came back home after work and baseball practice and the dog was still there. I took a few minutes and played with the dog in the back yard and it seemed to be partially trained. After a couple of days of the dog refusing to go home, we decided to give it a name...CHARLIE. I assumed it was a male dog since it was big and black, but one day I noticed the dog squatted to pee so I decided to take a peek underneath...it was definitely a girl! However, we decided to stick with Charlie and the name fit her perectly.

Over the next few weeks, we tried hard to find the owner. We called the pound to see if anyone had reported a missing dog, we put up signs around our neighborhood, and I even put her on the school's online bulletin board to see if anyone needed a dog. With a 2 month-old boy, we didn't have a need nor the room to have a dog...especially a 60-lb dog. With no luck in finding her a home, we quickly grew attached. We left her in the backyard in hopes that she would find her way home, but she decided to stay.

During Spring Break in April, Lauren had gone out of town with her family and I had baseball practice everyday. One day I came home and heard this awful yelping in the backyard. I opened the garage door to find the neighbor's dogs had come into our backyard and were cornering Charlie. One of the dogs was biting at Charlie's legs, so she defended herself against them. Because Charlie was much bigger than the other dogs, she injured one of the dogs trying to get out of the corner. It was not a pretty site. Blood was on my back porch and I was trying to chase off one of the neighbor's dogs, trying to get Charlie inside, and trying to take care of the dog that was hurt. After the craziness had settled, I stopped by the neighbor's house the following day to check on their dog. Unfortunately, too much damage had been done and they had to put the dog to sleep. I was upset about the whole ordeal...the dogs getting in our backyard and Charlie hurting the other dog, even if she was defending herself. I began to ask God, "Why in the world did you give us this dog that we do not want or need?"

I felt like God was telling me to make the most out of this situation...but how??? I went next door and offered to help pay for the vet bill, but I also felt led to invite them to church. Easter Sunday was coming up, so I invited them to bring their kids to church so they could participate in the Easter Egg hunt afterwards. Sure enough they came and I was so excited! Had God brought us Charlie so she could play a part in leading me to invite my neighbors to church? Who knows???

Time passed and we began to keep Charlie inside, so she would not get into mischief outside. Charlie would lay around and let Price pull at her hair and tail, she would lay her head in our lap and look at us as if to say, "Will you please rub my head," and she knew which buttons to push with Sadie to make her mad. She fit our family perfectly!

During this time, we have been praying for God to provide us with a bigger house to allow us to grow our family, as well as using it as a safe haven for teenagers to hang out on the weekends. My wife and I both lead Bible studies on Mondays, but we don't have a lot of room for them to hang out. We have been trying to sell our house and several people have been interested, but it has not sold yet. We were wanting to finish the fence in our backyard so Charlie could run around without getting into the woods, but we didn't want to spend that money if someone was going to buy our house soon. We decided to pray that God would be very clear about the simple matter of whether or not to put up a fence. And today, God answered that prayer...but in an unfortunate matter. This past weekend we took a trip to the beach, so Lauren's parents offered to keep Charlie. Lauren got an unfortunate call from her dad this morning informing us that Charlie passed away Sunday morning.

That leaves this question...what was Charlie's purpose? Did she come to us for a brief time so we could have an opportunity to invite our neighbors to church (they have visited several times since Easter...PRAISE THE LORD)...is there no purpose for Charlie coming to us...or is there a different purpose that has not yet been revealed??? Lord, I know that your will is perfect, your timing is perfect, and you have a purpose for everything...even Charlie. Thank you for allowing me, Lauren, Price, and others to enjoy Charlie and her endless love and energy! We will miss her greatly, but we are grateful for the time we were given to spend with her. May the Lord's purpose be known for Charlie's presence in our lives.

Life Right Now...

One thing I love about teaching school is the time we have off. Whether it be in the summer, Labor Day, or the Christmas holidays, it is so refreshing to have time to play with my boy, Price, and spend time with Lauren. Speaking of refreshing, I am listening to a sound outside that I have not heard in months...RAIN!!! The experts say to expect 3-6" of rain in our area, however I am just enjoying seeing a cloudy sky with rain drizziling down. Thank you, Jesus!

Here is what is going on with my family right now...

I have to give Price speeding tickets these days for crawling too fast. He finds something to grab onto and pulls himself up, then gazes around to see if we are watching. Now he is trying to take a couple of steps as he lunges toward his next target. All of our friends say, "Knock him down and keep him on the ground," but he refuses to stay on the ground. He is growing up quickly, and I am enjoying being at home in the afternoons to watch him grow.

Lauren and I are also in the process of trying to sell our house. It has been for sale for almost a year now, but we have constantly asked God to send us a buyer who will replace us as a Christian role model for our neighbors. We also took some time last night to cruise around on the west side of town and see what kind of houses are for sale. We saw a few, but nothing in our price range. That is where we are completely trusting God to do something IMMEASURABLY MORE than what we are asking or imagining. This is the part I love about being a child of God, the part where I know He is in control and there is nothing I can do about it. My job is to pray and seek His will, and know that He is going to provide for us. My mom always made us make out a list of things we wanted to see God do and then pray about it. I remember when we first moved to Cartersville we were living in a rental house and we were looking at different houses. My mom sat us down and we made a list of what we wanted in a house. Of course all of the things we wanted seemed out of reach, but God gave us every item on that list and more. That was the first time I saw the power of prayer, not that we asked and it was given to us, but that we asked, believed, and God provided in a powerful way. This time as Lauren and I have the chance to teach Price how to pray (when he is old enough to understand), we want to look back and show Price how we asked God to provide and He gave us so much more!

Fall is in full swing and we have several things going on and coming up. Lauren and I each do a Bible Study with high school students. I do a guys Bible Study on Monday afternoons right after school, and Lauren does her girls Bible Study later on Monday evenings. We are currently doing a study called "The Best Question Ever" by Andy Stanley. The question is, "What is the wise thing to do?" It is a great time to learn to ask this question for these high school students, especially when they are dealing with temptations and peer pressure to drink, smoke, and have sex daily. And just because you are a born-again believer does not mean that you are immune to any of these temptations. Satan usually finds that loop hole in our lives and shoves that temptation right in our path. We are teaching our students the importance of reading God's Word and praying DAILY. Not a few times a week, but EVERYDAY! Satan loves it when we think we are doing our "Christian duty" by reading the Bible for 5 minutes and saying a quick prayer just to check off the "Quiet Time" box on our "To Do List". But let me tell you that God HATES it when we do that! He wants us to be soaked up with Him everyday, but we cannot absorbed with Him when we do not devote ourselves to reading His Word and praying daily. Please pray for Lauren and myself, as well as these teenagers, as we memorize scripture, read God's Word, and get on our knees and beg God to work in and through us!

Another big event coming up this October is "Fields of Faith". Cartersville High School hosted "Fields of Faith" last year and there were about 2,000 people that came and over 300 decisions that were made for Christ. Some were renewing their commitment to Jesus, and others were asking Him to take total control of their life for the first time. This year we will have students represented from all Bartow & Polk county schools, and about 10 students will share what their life was like before they met Jesus, how they met Jesus, and how God is working in their life right now. This will be held on Wednesday, October 19th at the Cartersville High School football stadium. The gates will open at 6:30pm and the testimonies will start at 7:00pm. If you live around this area, this is something you do not want to miss! (All ages are invited)

Like I said, there is a lot going on in our life right now, but we constantly pray that God will keep us on track with His will. I encourage you to study, not just read, God's Word daily and to earnestly seek Him who can do all things!