Lap Dog Love

 "Trust is a process, not an event." McBride

Monday morning I took Mo Trouble to the vet for his annual physical. I knew it was possible that something was wrong with his ears because he'd been rolling around on my floor trying to scratch them.

Mo has a double ear infection. A combination of debris, yeast and bacteria have bread deep in his little cockapoo ears. Since they hang low like a cocker spaniel, no air floor gets to them. The vet said because of the depth of the ear infection and how inflamed his ears are - we needed to hit with a slow and steady treatment.

For 30 days I'm supposed to do a DAILY ear cleaning treatment.

I don't know if you've ever tried to clean a dog's ears - or maybe your dog is just better behaved than mine, but Mo Trouble is NOT a fan.

5 days in and he now freaks out at the sight of the ear cleaning solution.

I don't know how good we're doing but I've got a spreadsheet chart and I'm committed.

It ideally takes 2-3 of us to pin him down, find his ears underneath all that hair and get drops in. AND then we are supposed to wipe his ears out. Every single time.

He yelps, barks, fights, tries to run away. It's a whole thing.

I'm consistently surprised though because after we release him, he runs around shaking his ears and then always climbs in my lap.

Always.

He somehow forgives me immediately for what he definitely thinks is torture. He somehow knows that I make choices for his own good. He somehow knows I love him.

He loves me.

We knew when we got Mo that his breed tends to attach to one person. We had hoped it would be a kid, but alas since I'm the doer of all the things. It's me.

I'm Mo's person.

When you're someone's person, you give them a lot of grace.

I think as a society we've forgotten that. We've forgotten to assume the best out of our people. We've forgotten to give people grace. To forgive. To love hard.

Instead we resort to this idea of "ghosting" people. Withdrawing from their lives. Giving them the silent treatment. It all feels really childish to me.

Mama Warriors, we are called to LOVE others.

In a way that doesn't always make sense on a tally chart. We give more grace than we get. We show up in the big and the small because it's the right thing to do.

We expect the best out of people.

We love like Jesus. Because we are loved by Jesus.

We climb in their lap even if they keep putting drops in our ears.