I am guessing that many of you reading this story have dogs. We have two. Roxie is our part Chow female and Tucker is our part Cocker Spaniel male. Before we moved a week ago, they had a medium size fenced in area to live in, with no trees. At our new house, they have a very large, in comparison, fenced in backyard as their new home. It is like, doggy heaven equipped with tree’s, which made things complete for Tucker. If you have a male dog, you know what I mean.

I was sure they would be completely satisfied living in doggy heaven and would never try to leave. I was wrong! One morning I was looking out of the kitchen window when I saw Roxie walking around the fence line. It was hilarious to watch her, though I was not sure what she was doing. She started at one end of the fence, lying down in front of it, and then she would move a couple feet and repeat, up and down, up and down. I thought, maybe she had some weird ritual that I had never noticed. I was wrong again!

Roxie was looking for an escape route. She decided doggy heaven was not enough for her so she found a place to push her way under the fence to the outside world. I was able to get her back in rather quickly but there were consequences. I put her on a 20 foot, rope until we had time to fix the escape route problem. With that entire yard to roam in, she was stuck to 20 feet of it because she was not satisfied with doggy heaven.

My first thought was that she is a stupid dog. She had a nice yard, people who love her, Tucker as a friend, food anytime she wanted to eat, an endless supply of water, and a nice place to sleep. What more could a dog ask for. She would never have to worry about being run over by a car, shot for being in some one’s stuff or starving and because of her actions; she ended up on the end of a 20-foot rope.

My next thought was that we humans are much like that. It started with Adam and Eve and continues with us today. Adam and Eve had heaven on earth but lost it because they went for the one thing God told them not too. They had a beautiful place to live, a personal relationship with God, no sickness or disease, no bad days or sad days, and no death. They did not have to wash or iron clothes because they did not wear them. They had it made and all they had to do was enjoy it but they chose to do the ONE thing God said not too.

How often do we do the same thing? God has lovingly given us spiritual and moral boundaries for our safety. He asks us t o follow Him, worship Him, obey Him, trust Him and find joy in life, and yet we find ourselves dissatisfied and looking elsewhere for purpose and fulfillment.

God has given us boundaries that will enhance our lives not hurt them. Outside those boundaries is a lot of heartache. That is where we find friendships, marriages, families and our lives destroyed. We set boundaries for our kids, not to cheat them out of something better, but because within those boundaries is the best. Roxie may have felt we cheated her out of fun by providing a fenced boundary but she was actually, given love and safety within the boundary. Adam and Eve felt God was withholding something better from them when He gave them a boundary but that was not the case at all. He was actually giving them the best within the boundary.

I have decided that Roxie’s decision, though unwise, was not a lot different from decisions we humans make everyday. Maybe we can give a little more thought to the loving purpose of the boundaries that our heavenly Father has given to us. Sometimes we miss the treasures and pleasures under our nose because we are too busy looking outside the fence, wondering what we are missing.