Oreo is a great dog. He stays close to the house when he has to go out and he lets me know if someone comes to the door. At night he sleeps nearby, allowing me to rest peacefully because I know if anything happened at night, Oreo would wake me.
But he is a very excitable dog. When my family started arriving this week, it was too much for him. My daughter and her husband arrived first with their four little ones. Poor Oreo, he got so excited, he couldn't calm down. He kept trying to herd the children into one area, knocking the two year old over and bumping the baby who is learning to crawl.
He tried to play with the oldest two, but became so exuberant, we decided enough was enough. Since my son and his wife and child were coming as well as my youngest daughter, there were just too many people here to keep Oreo home. We decided to board him at the vet while the family was here - for his stress levels as well as ours.
Like my excitable dog, God knows what I can handle each day. If I grow too stressed, He makes a place I can go to feel the calming peace of His presence. He leads me beside still waters where I can become refreshed and renewed. As I learn to rest in His presence, I learn to manage my inner anxieties so that I can once again walk and serve as I desire.
