{"id":817,"date":"2017-09-27T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T16:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/animal-lovers-people-lovers-lets-unite\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:11:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:11:03","slug":"animal-lovers-people-lovers-lets-unite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=817","title":{"rendered":"Animal Lovers & People Lovers — Let’s Unite!!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was having my early-morning devotion on the Wuerch Family\u2019s back patio when Bryson, my 10 year old joined me. Oh how I love that boy and the \u201ctalks\u201d we have. We started talking about how crazy the world seems and what a shame it is that people are being so ugly to each other. I said, \u201cYou know, Bryson, that\u2019s not the way God created us to be. In the beginning He created the Garden of Eden. In fact it looked just like this (I pointed to the backyard). It was so peaceful and beautiful.. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They ate the apple from the one tree that He said they shouldn’t eat from. Ever since then we\u2019ve been doing things that God says not to do. He told us to love and be at peace. And what does God\u2019s people do? We argue and complain and dislike each other. We take ourselves out of the Garden of Eden because of those kinds of mistakes.\u201d Then Bryson gave his profound response to my Bible lesson and insights. \u201cNana, there wasn’t concrete in the Garden of Eden. There wasn’t a basketball court. There were no houses.\u201d Oh my goodness. That boy. My joy.<\/p>\n

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Actually, Bryson does bring a little Garden of Eden to me as he represents so much peace to me. I accompany him to see after his animals \u2013 the longhorn, a barn cat, five goats and two miniature donkeys: Molly and Firecracker. By the way, there will be a baby arriving to the Wuerch\u2019s animal kingdom in October. Firecracker is \u201cwith child\u2026.rather foal\u201d. <\/p>\n

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Then there\u2019s Bentley, their dog. Bryson loves all animals with all his heart. A garden snake was in their yard and Brennan was about to kill it, when Bryson stepped in to save the day for the snake. He has built-in compassion for animals. <\/p>\n

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Bryson and I took Brennan to his baseball game on Sunday, with spare time to visit the \u201cAustin Pet Alive\u201d animal shelter. They are a part of a network of shelters that have rescued over 2,000 dogs and cats from abandonment after Hurricane Harvey. Hundreds are at the Austin location. They are scrambling to reunite the pets to their owners. I saw so many loving volunteers there who didn’t seem to notice all the loud barking. Neither did Bryson. He said, \u201cNana, I think I\u2019m in heaven!\u201d <\/p>\n

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I don’t profess to being an animal lover, but I appreciate the love people have for their pets, My compassion extends more to people. The key word here is compassion. I know people who treat their pets like family. I see those heart-wrenching times when a family\u2019s beloved pet passes away. I see how people get indignant when animals are abused and they talk about it passionately on social media. I understand that people get attached to animals for a number of reasons, but it\u2019s mostly a combination of their biology and need for affection. As for the biology, when people touch and look at their pet, it makes their brain release chemicals that makes them feel good. The need for affection boils down to the fact that pets offer unconditional love. And unconditional love feels good.<\/p>\n

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Preferring a dog over humans seems absurd to me, but I know those beloved pets are always there for their owners. Sweet Bentley in the Wuerch household, lives for our contact with him. He will never disparage us. He has no hidden motives. He gives consistent, unconditional love. He only barks when someone comes to the front door but welcomes them with a wag and a kiss and laying on his back for a tummy rub. He\u2019ll also be a great consoler to you if you need it, because he\u2019ll jump up by you to keep you company.<\/p>\n

I started this post today with \u201cGod\u2019s creation and beauty that He made for you and me.\u201d We got it messed up when we humans lost our compassion for each other. You know that part that says \u201cLove your neighbor as you love yourself; be kind to each other \u2013 tender-hearted with mercy \u2013 forgiving one another.\u201d <\/p>\n

Somewhere, along the way, we became consumed with judgementalism instead of gratefulness. I\u2019m liking the sound of a dog\u2019s life where we simply show up for each other and give each other consistent, unconditional love. That sure makes the animals sound like they have a lot more of the character of God than we do. Our great, unconditional loving and compassionate God is consistent \u2013 never changing \u2013 and is the great consoler when we need His love the most. No wonder my grandson loves animals. Just maybe, his love, is the Father\u2019s love for all of mankind. I\u2019m going to think like that and desire to be like that. How about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was having my early-morning devotion on the Wuerch Family\u2019s back patio when Bryson, my 10 year old joined me. Oh how I love that boy and the \u201ctalks\u201d we have. We started talking about how crazy the world seems and what a shame it is that people are being so ugly to each other.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4791,4792,4793,19,4794,2212,4443,4472,4795,4796,4797,4798,4799],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animal-shelter","tag-animals","tag-austin-pet-alive","tag-bible","tag-character-of-god","tag-compassion","tag-compassionate","tag-devotion","tag-dogs-life","tag-garden-of-eden","tag-household-pets","tag-in-the-beginning","tag-unconditional-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7357,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions\/7357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}