Puppy Reflections

When we first considered getting a puppy we heard that it would be a lot of work, and it has been. It feels like I've been raising a baby because every waking moment I'm with Mighty, I have to keep an eye out on him. "Mighty, leave it. Mighty, don't bite. Mighty, good boy! Mighty, sit." These phrases are part of our everyday language now and I feel like a mommy who is always disciplining or praising. My thought life has also changed to include a lot about Mighty. When I'm out, I'm thinking about Mighty and rush to come home. When he needs something, I always want to get him the best. When he gets hurt, I get worried and wonder if we're doing something wrong. Even though its been a lot of work, it has been so much more rewarding. Over the past few weeks, I've been learning a couple things that I feel like are preparing me to think about motherhood which I know will be a million times harder and also a million times sweeter.

1. Disciplining in love is hard
I've heard some mothers share with me that it's difficult to discipline with love, but only true discipline exists with love. Anything apart from love is selfish and does not come from a heart that truly wants to teach. I've experienced this with Mighty too. Sometimes I get so frustrated when he's not really understanding what I'm trying to teach him and I lose my patience. And when I'm frustrated and not teaching Mighty in love, I defeat the purpose of true discipline. Its been sobering to see my impatient heart from training Mighty and it has been a good reminder that I have much to prepare myself for disciplining children in motherhood.

2. Prioritize my marriage
Since we got Mighty, I feel like my time alone with Richard went from a lot to none.  Even though we're always together, we're constantly focusing on Mighty and his needs. In a lot of ways Mighty has brought us many joys to experience together, but it's been increasingly difficult to prioritize our times together. We've begun to revolve our time, energy, and conversations around Mighty and I can easily imagine how this would happen more so with children. I'm thankful for our date nights because even now we've used that time to reconnect and have sweet conversations. I definitely want to continue our date nights when our children come around though I imagine it would be more difficult. 

In some ways, it's silly that I've been paralleling my experience with Mighty to what I imagine motherhood will be like. But I feel like these struggles will only be greater with children since I not only have to take care of their physical needs, but also their emotional and spiritual needs. I'm thankful that I'm able to think about these things now so I can have even a sneak peak into what I can expect with children. It's also extremely sobering because I'm sure that I'll struggle with a million other things with motherhood, but I'm thankful that God does not leave me to be alone through all of this and he ultimately take cares of all of us. And at the end of the day, children are a gift from God and a blessing to be enjoyed...and Mighty is too! :)