Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

Have you heard of the “dog days of summer?” I always wondered what that meant, so I Googled it, and here’s what I learned: “For many, the ‘dog days’ evoke those summer days that are so devastatingly hot that even dogs would lie around on the asphalt, panting. But originally, the phrase had nothing to do with dogs, or even with the lazy days of summer. Instead, the dog days refer to Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, which means “big dog” in Latin and is said to represent one of Orion’s hunting dogs.” — Article in National Geographic.

We raise silver labs. My sweet girls flop down from spot to spot. Sometimes bark a little if people are coming up our driveway or when they want more attention. Plop, plop, rest and more rest! They just enjoy laying around. Often Basil will lay in front of my picture window.

I like to look out the window and just see a dog laying there peacefully. I seldom experience the “dog days of summer” per the popular meaning. I am more like a person going in and out of a revolving door. From this activity to another event, doing this and that — sprinkle in laundry, housework, food preparation, connecting with family, watching a TV show, to and fro I go — whew! I feel more like I’m on the escalator of life — up, down and all around.
Like me, you likely are very busy doing very good things. Yet I long for “dog days of summer.”

Time to sit, read a book, put my feet up and have a nice conversation over a cup of coffee, sweet tea or maybe a cold Dr Pepper.

I was listening to the radio and a song came on with lyrics: “There will be joy in the morning.” — Joy In The Morning by Tauren Wells

I have a picture above our spare bed that states “In the morning when I wake, give me Jesus.” This is a reference from Psalm 30:5b.

It is my prayer that each morning when I wake up that I would stop, pause and pray for those that are important in my life. Pray for our country. Pray for our leaders, as instructed in 1 Timothy 2:1-4. Just pray!

Maybe you’re in the season of life where you do get to enjoy “dog days of summer.” I anxiously await those days. I pray when I am there, I will take that gift and use it very appropriately to further the God’s kingdom whether in word, deeds or prayer. We can all be missionaries. We can all be “spreaders of the Gospel.”

“Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.’” — Matthew 9:37, NIV

That’s you. That’s me. Dear readers it is my prayer that you would choose joy today!

Robin (Beckman) Gudal is intentional in life, a wife, momma, nana, friend, a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.