puppy graduation
and the importance of recognizing the little wins
I wrote to you just a few days ago about how Rocco wasn’t really listening to me when I gave him different commands. Despite that, he graduated from obedience school. It was adorable.
It got me thinking about the different complaints that people have about participation trophies and how we are creating a culture where young people are not prepared to be let down in life. To be honest, I grew up in an age of participation trophies and I don’t think they had any kind of effect on my preparedness for life.
But that’s beside the point.
Before graduation at obedience class, each of the dogs had to demonstrate different commands. Rocco sat. He stayed. He came when called. He didn’t jump up on the teacher when she came to pet him.
And I thought to myself, “Who is this dog that seems so obedient? Why can’t he do this at home?” (Although, to be honest, Rocco ate the treat when we were supposed to be demonstrating “leave it,” so it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.)
But that’s it. Rocco has completed Basic Training I. Next is Basic Training II, where they learn tricks like rolling over and giving you a high five and whatnot. Rocco is nowhere near that point, obviously. So for right now, we just have to keep practicing at home and praying for the best.
“Practicing at home and praying for the best” also describes my recovery process from trauma, which I know I’ve mentioned in passing in this newsletter before. Practicing when dealing with things like nightmares and flashbacks means focusing on my breathing, avoiding watching or reading things that might trigger me, and reaching out when I need to talk to someone.
Like Rocco, though, I don’t always do it. It takes a lot of effort and I would much rather go through life just living on my instincts, just like him.
But as time goes on, things are becoming easier. It’s slowly becoming second nature to do the things that I’m supposed to do to stay healthy and safe.
It’s tempting to have an all or nothing mentality, to say I need to be perfect or else nothing that I do matters. But that’s not how Jesus told us to live. In fact, thinking about this got me thinking about the widow’s mite.
In the Gospels, in the temple the Apostles see people giving tons and tons of money. And then a widow comes up and gives two small coins. Jesus uses this as a time to teach the Apostles a lesson, saying that everyone else has given out of their excess while the widow gave everything that she had— she trusted in God far more than the people who gave larger sums.
It’s easy to look at our metaphorical two coins and dismiss them, thinking that we have to be perfect. Or we can celebrate the fact that we have trusted in God at least one time, just as He smiles on us when we trust in Him.
Because, you see, if we don’t celebrate the little wins, we will never be satisfied with what God is doing in our lives. It’s one thing to be frustrated with ourselves not responding to God’s love. It’s an entirely different thing to dismiss what God is doing simply because it doesn’t meet our expectations.
Don’t dismiss what God is doing in your life. Celebrate that He is alive and active, having lovingly planned every detail of your life from all eternity.
Rocco is still learning to trust in me, and that’s okay. I’m learning to trust God too. Let’s celebrate the wins as they come.
Reminders:
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This newsletter is affiliated with Sock Religious! I just got this Sacred Heart t-shirt and I’m pretty pumped.
This month’s Catholic Book Club book is a thriller: Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. I loved her book The Wife Upstairs and I can’t wait to read this one. Join us on Zoom (whether you’ve read the book or not) on Friday March 4th at 8pm EST.