Selfishness
As the days get longer, Bailey gets up earlier. Today it was 5:35 am when he started to whine next to the bed. I usually tell him to “go lay down, it’s too early”, and he does listen (and obey, for a while at least); but today I got up right away and we headed outside.
After our usual saunter around the yard, I sat down in a chair in the driveway and tried to wake up. He had other ideas. He grabbed his basketball, a plush, nearly indestructible full-sized ball I found in the woods behind our house last fall. For a lab owner, indestructible is good, because they can chew through most any toy in minutes.
When he gets this ball in his mouth, he shakes it violently, whirling around in circles. Then comes the “imposition”. He not-so-subtly puts the ball in my lap, still holding it tightly in his mouth, and looks at me with eyes that say, “Pull it. Just pull it, please.” I don’t really recommend tug-of-war with dogs, it tends to make them possessive and teaches them to never give anything to you. But Bailey’s pretty good about settling down when I need him to so I usually indulge him.
I tugged him around for a good ten minutes or so, with a few fetches thrown in. Finally, both of us bored, I sat back down and he ate his food. I turned to Philippians 2 and read about Christ’s example of humility. Verse 4 struck me in particular: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” I thought of how this applies to my morning ritual. I love time alone, to read, to putter around the yard, or to just sit and think. Bailey is always with me and beyond the imposition and feeding him, he makes few demands. So getting up early is something I usually enjoy. In fact, I’ve been pretty jealous of this time in the past, particularly when my girls get up earlier than usual and the silence is broken. This morning, reading verse 4, I became aware of this selfishness with my time in a way I’ve not experienced before.