The One Where Someone Threw A Dog At Me

So, we were tidying up after our toddler group and I noticed that there was a toy dog underneath some chairs. One of the toddlers was toddling (it’s funny how they do that) around and so I had asked her if she could pass the dog to me (that’s called working smart!)

She wandered toddled over, picked up the dog and came back towards me. I was really impressed with how helpful and kind she was being, but then when she was a few feet away she threw the dog at me. Fortunately, because she is so small her throw wasn’t powerful enough and so the dog didn’t have sufficient speed to reach (or hit) me.

Imagine the headline if it had?:

Baptist Minister Hospitalized by Flying Dog

I survived and so did the little girl whose mum was not impressed at all.

I was thinking about this later and it occurred to me that she did actually pass the dog to me, it was just more in a rugby style than in the way I expected.

Whilst I found this all quite funny, I also hope that as she grows up (and can throw harder!) that she realizes that when people say ‘can you pass …’ it doesn’t mean ‘throw it at me’.

It takes time to grow!

Jesus is at work in the lives of his followers, changing us as we allow him to be Lord of our lives. He is doing this, but sometimes it can take time to grow and we should realize that this is natural

One of the things that I believe strongly in is:

In life, the direction you are headed is more important than where you are.

If you are a Christian, how are you growing in your faith? How is Jesus changing you?

If you have been a Christian a long time, what are your expectations of new Christians? Do you expect them to be perfect or are you willing to remember that growth takes time rather than judging them?

If you are frustrated with your Church, is it because you are looking for things to criticize rather than looking for signs of growth and encouragement?

Growth takes time, but we do need to be willing to allow it to take place rather than to resist it.

We need to be willing to move in the right direction rather than to be satisfied with where we are.

Does anyone want to pass anything to me?

Does anyone want to move and grow?