Wrong Choices

I am really allergic to cats. They make my eyes itch like mad, my nose run, and I get all sneezy. When I was a kid I didn't care too much. I loved animals and spent a lot of time with my cat and all the kittens she had over the years of having her. I just knew I could go wash my hands and face real good and change my cloths and I would be OK. Well as I have gotten older I have realized that it was rather silly to continue to torture myself all for a cat! I have since then avoided cats. Even now if I am in the presence of someone who has a cat I have an attack. Kevin and Emily are too allergic to cats. Emily actually starts wheezing and gets hives and swelling if she has contact with the cat or its "home", we learned the scary way how allergic she is.

Lately there has been this cat lingering around our apartment, I am not sure if he is a stray or just a neglected neighbor. I usually stomp my feet, shew it away or say something mean toward it. I have other reasons for not liking cats anymore, but ultimately it stems from them making me incredibly uncomfortable (allergies). So, this morning the girls and I went outside to go to school and here was this cat sitting on our front porch waiting to get who knows what from me. Lydia, my youngest, proceeds to stamp her foot, shew it, and call it a "stinking cat" which obviously has come out of my mouth a time or two. I was immediately humbled. I felt bad that I had been such a bad example to my children in regards to God's creatures, allergy causing or not. I apologized to my girls for teaching them the wrong way to treat cats. I informed them that we should not treat animals that way and that the only reason I do it is because they give me allergies. But, we should still be kind to them. So, to show my daughters that they are not "bad" so to say, or "stinking" in my words, I sat on the step and rubbed the cats ears and under his chin. I felt sad for the cat, he seemed to be starving for affection and possibly even food. It wasn't the first time I felt compassion on a cat recently. While riding bikes back from dropping Emily off at school I have been noticing a particular cat pacing around a drive way of a house that recently went for sale. This cat continues every day to pace around the driveway and even runs up to the door of the vacant house. It seemed to me that the previous owners of the home had abandoned the poor creature. I went to it trying to comfort the animal, he ran off terrified. I felt really sad for him and angry at the humans who left him behind.

So, after petting the cat a bit I told Lydia that we had contaminated our hands and we needed to go and scrub them. No joke just in a matter of minutes of returning inside and properly cleansing my hands my eyes, nose and throat began to be uncomfortably itchy. Lydia and I were sitting on the floor playing an ABC game (which by the way can be purchased on my website!) and I told her that I made a wrong choice by petting that cat. She says to me, "see Mom, even grown ups make wrong choices sometimes!?" So, my sweet 5 year old daughter taught me a lesson. Yes, grown ups do make wrong choices sometimes and we have to correct our mistakes...by washing our hands, changing our cloths, and promising never to do it again. The interesting thing that caught my attention is this, even after I had taken the necessary steps to "fix" my wrong choice of petting the cat I still felt the effects of the cat long after I had "repented". Isn't that interesting. I took an allergy pill to receive some relief and since I have not even thought about the discomfort associated with the cat.

This little experience is exactly like accepting the atonement of Christ. It is like taking the allergy pill. Jesus takes away our pain and discomfort...if we go to him and accept Him, and repent, then our wrong choices (sins) are forgiven and we no longer feel the effects of the (sins).

Those "stinkin'" cats! I sure am grateful for allergy medication!