Molly was a treasure, truly she was. Our little family didn’t have the best of luck when it came to keeping a pet. We had boys, three of them to be exact, and boys just had to have puppies when they were little. I wanted the entire perfect picture: perfect husband, check, cute little house, check, three little blonde haired, blue-eyed boys, check. Time for the puppy!

The problem we had was that we were not very good with pets. The Sweetheart was terribly busy with his career and I was even busier trying to keep three boys from playing in the streets or setting the house on fire. We really didn’t have time for a pet, but the all-American pressure of the perfect family demanded one!

It wasn’t long afterward that we got the opportunity to buy the house that my husband was born in and seven beautiful wooded acres to go along with it. The boys were in heaven. What would go better with three boys, seven acres and a POND but a puppy!! Enter the cutest little bundle of joy you have ever seen, a beagle we affectionately christened Molly.

This little brown and white spotted queen knew she owned the farm. My father-in-law was a stone mason and had 120 acres for a small hobby farm and hay fields. He subdivided it and built a new house for himself and my mother-in-law and we bought the homestead; this meant the farm was now connected to the new subdivision. My husband’s two brothers and a sister also lived in the subdivision, so we were blessed to be surrounded by family. It was a great place to raise the boys. It was also heaven-on-earth for a beagle. Molly was no exception; she absolutely loved it.

The only problem here is that Molly wouldn’t stay at home. She loved to explore. Now you would think that with seven acres there would be plenty of room for adventure. She had hundreds of trees, dozens and dozens of squirrels to chase, lots of little chipmunks and way too many moles that were destroying our yard. She had plenty to keep herself busy right there but Molly liked to explore OUTSIDE of our yard. So The Sweetheart decided he was going to have to put in an invisible fence. You may have never met my Doogalas, but he is thrifty, some call him tight, some might even say he is a penny-pincher. But he is NEVER lazy.

He decides he will put in this invisible fence all by himself…naturally his boys are going to help him. Kyle and Kristopher are now old enough to be ordered around. Had Facebook  and Instagram been invented this would have made great entertainment all its own. But I digress. So the electric fence is now installed and all is well. Molly is wearing her collar and we all assume our positions. Kyle turns on the switch and we wait. Poor Molly, that first little shock is just that. It is a shock! She has no idea what has happened to her but after the training is over she just sits at her house with a dejected look on her face contemplating her next move.   

We assume she has learned her lesson and we all go about our business working in the yard but about thirty minutes later I notice her creeping up to the line and just sitting there for a few minutes and then suddenly she bolts! One little “Yelp!” and she is gone! She has decided that little shock for a brief second is worth it for an afternoon of freedom. And the chase is on! The Sweetheart has spent almost a week putting that fence in and in seconds it is over.

It wasn’t unusual for a neighbor or family member to bring her home. Everybody loved Molly and Molly loved everybody. When we took a pastorate in Cincinnati, Ohio, three hours away from our beloved home, many people offered to take her and keep her for us but the move was hard enough for the boys, we couldn’t leave Molly behind.

When we moved again to Missouri several years later, Molly was getting older and my brother asked to take her. This time I knew it was too much for her, living in the city in Cincinnati was hard for her and my brother lived in the country where she would be happy again. She died there a few years ago and he buried her under a beautiful old shade tree.  

I ran across a picture of her earlier this week and I was reminded of all the good times, walking her in the neighborhood, watching her chase squirrels, seeing her corner a groundhog one day and having no idea what she was going to do with it. Her bark was always bigger than her bite!

The time she treed a coon in the middle of the night, right outside our bedroom window, and she was not about to shut up until we came outside to see her trophy. In Cincinnati she didn’t have as big a yard but at least it had a fence around it. Unfortunately, we were also close to the Interstate and the noise really bothered her. We still took daily walks so she could get out and see the neighborhood but it wasn’t enough for Molly. Wouldn’t you know she found a way to dig a hole underneath that gate and one day we heard that familiar “Yelp!” This time it wasn’t from shock but from shear joy. She had done it again!

We are all a little like Molly I think. We like to roam, we like our freedom, we like attention, we are human. We also love life, love people, we want to be involved, we want to go and do things, be a part, and when we can’t do the things we once were able to do it hurts. Sickness and pain interfere in our lives and keep us from doing the things we once loved and we don’t understand why these things have happened to us. Why must every day be so hard? Does God even hear me? Yes, my friend He does! You can find strength in the midst of your difficulty.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-5.

Hope comes out of suffering. The Bible gave us a promise and it gave us proof – of whose suffering produced the greatest hope of all, Jesus Christ.

So even though we may not understand the trials we are going through, God is with us in our suffering. That is a great comfort to us! Start every day with the Word, praise and prayer and see the difference surrendering to Him makes in your life. I love the NLT version of the following scripture, I pray it blesses you today and you let it soak into your spirit and realize how much God truly loves YOU. Be determined like Molly to not be fenced in by your problems and let them overwhelm you to the point of giving in but let the Lord carry them for you.

“When I think of all of this, I fall to my knees, and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down in to God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:14-19.