Comfort Food....It's Not What You Think.

A few July 4ths ago, we were out enjoying the day and the fireworks later on that night.  We laughingly poured into our house through the front door to be met by our sheepish looking dog in the foyer.  She was so glad we were home and we realized the fireworks must have upset her.  We gave her some love and went our ways only to reconvene with a big question for each other.  What in the world had happened while we were gone?

All through the house, from the basement to our master bedroom on the upper level, were gift bags.  I keep them in the basement for when I need one and they were there when we left.  Somehow, someway, the gift bags were dragged through the house and left all over the place.  No wonder Daisy had looked sheepish!  The closest we could figure was that in her stressed out state, she had done some redecorating and had festooned the house with gift bags.  Weird!

Yesterday we returned from vacation.  Instead of kenneling Daisy, we hired a house sitter and Melodie was very gracious to come and spend lots of good time with our pet but she didn't stay the night.  Daisy has never been alone overnight in the 8 years we've had her.  I knew she'd be fine because she's a good dog, and she was.  One thing was strange....kind of like the gift bags from years before.

We sent our oldest to the basement to check things out (to see if she'd had any accidents) and he came back carrying a sad little bundle of paper.  In his hands were the remains of a small Bible my youngest has been using for Bible study.  The interior pages were completely fine, but the leather binding was chewed to bits.  All of this, believe it or not, has caused me to think about how I handle stress.

Do I run around in a panic when things get harried?   Sometimes.
Do I find "busy work" to occupy myself when I'm worried about bigger things?  Sometimes
Do I go to God's word when I'm feeling anxious and afraid?  Sometimes, but not enough.

So, maybe I'm stretching my crazy dog and her panic attacks into something they're not, but it has caused me to look at my "panics" a little differently.  Next time I'm feeling stressed, I'm going to skip the running around and the busy distractions, and I'm going to head straight for God's word.  I'm going to "tear it up" in a different way from Daisy, but I'm going to dig in nonetheless.

Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.