Marley's in trouble....again!

Sigh.  Tom has gone to the gym and I was in another part of the house for a few minutes.  When I returned, I could smell something, but couldn't figure it out.  I walked around and noticed a couple dark grainy spots on the carpet.  I bent down and checked to see what it was, and it appeared to be dirt.  Next to her bed was more 'dirt' and some black plastic, which had been chewed into small pieces.

Puzzled, I checked my house plants to see if she had gotten into them.  She has gotten big enough that she could possibly get to the top of the little refrigerator.  No, those plants were fine.  I checked the ones behind the fireplace screen in the kitchen.  No, the screen had not been moved. 

I begin walking around, trying to find some other evidence to determine what Marley had been in to.   Little Miss Innocent is in her favorite spot under the kitchen table, watching me walk around.  She doesn't offer to help me determine what it is.

But I finally figure it out - I'm sure to her dismay. 

We have a Keurig coffee maker.  Every morning Tom always makes my coffee (and his) and brings to me while I do my 'quiet time'.  Apparently when he threw the little canister of used coffee away, it missed the waste basket (which is behind a closed cabinet) and landed on the floor, right in the open area between the cabinet and the floor.  And the place where Marley often goes, hoping to find something that didn't make the waste basket.  She found it this morning.

Yes, she found a used canister of coffee.  I'm sure the smell was a draw to her (just like it is to me every morning.  "Mmmmmmm"  is the sound of good coffee).  While I wasn't looking - or it could have been while we both were here and doing other things - she snatched the canister and proceeded to devour it.  And she did, most of it.    I guess I could say she had a 'coffee break'.  Except for the tale-tale evidence, she could have gotten by with it.  

Marley is like us in a lot of ways, isn't she? 

We start out with good intentions. We want to do the right thing, behave the right way.  We want to be "good" and obey, do what we know is right.  But then.... 

The ice cream we said we wouldn't eat while on our diet, we couldn't resist and what was only one bite to start ended with us eating the entire canister.

The beer we were going to have 'just one' while we visit with a friend turns into 4 or 5.  And we still have to go home.

The letter we were wanting to write and even sat down to do before we got distracted still lays on the table with the pen, waiting for us to finish.

The call we were going to make but we wanted to do something else first becomes a 'not so important' call to make, until it is too late.

The invitation to meet with family and/or friends and just get together is waiting to be given but it never happens.

So what do we do?  We snatch at life in pieces, trying to make sense of what we are missing and why are we missing it.  Often we blame others why life is the way it is.  Why we are fat.  Why we feel unloved.  Why we feel sad.  Why we feel alone. 

Snatching at life sometimes can cause us problems.  Although I couldn't punish Marley because I found the evidence of what she had done, I didn't see her do it.  I know she did it, but I can't punish her for something I didn't see her do so that I could correct her at the time.

We think that if we do some things that we won't get caught.  We think that no one will see us do anything - whether right or wrong.  The difference is that if it is right, you will share it with others.
But another big difference is that what you do is always seen by our Heavenly Father.

Hebrews 12:1-3  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

Don't be a 'life-snatcher', but find joy in serving the One who gave His life for you.

Blessings!