Sweet Betty

It is true that God can use anything to get our attention and to teach us and in my case He used the sweetest little dog I have ever known.  Yes, we lost our precious little yorkie, Eli, almost two years ago and as much as we loved him he couldn't measure up to Betty.  As my husband said when we  buried her, "if we live to be 100 years old, we'll never have another dog like Betty."

Betty was a stray, who just showed up at our house one day about this time of the year ten years ago.  She was a smaller dog with the cutest little sway and bounce to her step.  I started calling her Betty Boop  when I realized she was going to become a permanent fixture around our home.  But it wasn't long until I changed her name and started calling her Sweet Betty. I wish I was a prolific writer so you could capture the essence of who she was. I used to confide to my dear friend and say, "do you think she could be an angel in disguise?" She laughed but I was serious!

I knew she had experienced a hard life because when I first started feeding her she would bury the food and I had never actually seen a dog do that except in cartoons.  We had about four cats at the time and when I took her food out the cats would start eating along with her, she would make this little growl and they would step back and she would always leave food on her plate so they could have some and she could have easily eaten it all.  It was so funny, I would get up early in the morning and all the cats would be curled up with her in her bed on the porch.  We have a sidewalk in front of our front door and she would stand in the grass by the edge of the sidewalk and look in the front door never up against the door to look in and when she saw us pass by she would stand up and start wagging her tail.  Every morning, I would see her in the pasture facing the east watching the sun come up and in the evening she was always on the driveway watching the sun go down.  I know this sounds different but she really did do this.  She had the biggest brown eyes that would just melt your heart.  My last memory of her before she died is holding her head in my hands and looking into her sweet face and those big eyes and telling her everything is going to be ok.  She was pregnant and she died during delivery. She was with us only four months but the impact of her life was everlasting.

Let me tell you what I learned from her.  As we were burying her, my husband and I was crying as if we had lost our dearest relative.  In my mind at the time, I said to God "I can't believe we are so broken hearted over this dog" and He said to me, "why did you love her so much?"  I sat there and thought about it for a moment and what immediately came to my mind was she was so meek and gentle and loving.  Then God said, "what kind of dog was she?"  I said, "a Heinz 57."  Then He said, "look over in the orchard at your two chocolate labs, you spent a lot of money for those dogs and you will never love them the way you've loved her." Do you see it's not the outward that matters it's what's inside that determines your beauty. Those labs are pedigree dogs that are admired by the world for their beauty and bloodline and Betty was what the world would call a mutt.   Even though this was just a dog, it was such a physical picture that I had experienced, that the reality of this truth went from my head to my heart.

I have struggled the biggest part of my life with how I look.  I never liked my nose, my feet were to big, I was too tall.  I always wanted to look like someone else, dress like someone else, have someone else's personality, and afraid if I expressed my true feelings I might not be accepted. I just had to be anybody but who I was.  It is a very popular saying today, that we need to love ourselves and that's very true.  Each person is unique with their own giftings and qualities.  But the majority of people never find this out about themselves because they are to busy trying to be like someone else and accepted.

I've always heard it's not about beauty, it's what's on the inside that counts and frankly up until this time I thought that was bullshit. Because that is not how it is in real life.  It's all about how you look, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the house you own, how much money you make, your title in life, who you know and do I need to continue on........no!  Everyone wants to be loved and accepted and so people play roles and put on faces that are not who they truly are.  The Good opinions of others play major roles in people's lives.

It wasn't long after this that our family attended an outdoor concert and my daughter took a profile picture of me and put it on facebook.  My hair was flat to my head and my nose was sticking out there.  I looked terrible!  When I saw the picture my first reaction was to go to the phone and call her and tell her to get that picture off of facebook. But I stopped in my tracks and thought but that is me, that's how I look and I never made the call.  Love me or hate me that's who I am.  I chose to love me big nose and all.  :) I was excited because I knew I was changing. 

It's been a process for me and I didn't change over night.  I have learned to really love who I am and to embrace my likes and dislikes, all my flaws and to be verbal about them because that is who I am.  I am learning to say no and to not worry about the good opinions of other people.  My philosophy is to not judge others but to look for the uniqueness in each individual, to accept and love who they are even if I don't agree.  I want everyone to experience the freedom and peace of being who they are.

The truth is the world hasn't changed, they still judge by those standards I mentioned above but it not longer affects my life because I'm more than all that superficial stuff and so are you! 

If you struggle with any of these issues, I hope this will challenge you to look at who you really are and find the courage to embrace who you are.  We all need you to be you!