Once upon a time, I married a girl who didn’t like dogs. 
She couldn’t stand the smell of dogs.
She hated the shedding issues of dogs.
She didn’t like the messes dogs made.
She said she would never let a dog in the house, ever, “and that’s final!”

I tried and tried to change her mind, but no matter what, she wouldn’t budge.
I showed her pictures of cute little puppies softly lying in a basket.
“No.”
I took her into mall pet stores “just to look” at the available pups for sale.
“No!”
I even promised to take care of all the dog responsibilities if we got one.
“No!  No!  Absolutely not!” she sharply exclaimed.
She was never going to change her mind.

Some years pass by and all of a sudden we have four children: three boys and one girl.
I thought it was time to try again.
Maybe this time she would change her mind and we could get a dog.
“Just a little kind of dog, they don’t smell; maybe a little beagle like Snoopy,” I said.
“No!  I don’t like little dogs,” she replied.
“Let’s get a non-shedding dog so there would be no hair issues” I pleaded.
“No!  There’s no such thing as a non-shedding dog,” she firmly stated.
“Let’s get one that never poops!” I exclaimed. 
“There’s no such thing,” she irritably responded.
I admitted she was right about the kind that never poops, but stood by my other ideas.
Still, she was never going to change her mind.

Then I thought on it for a while.
Why do I want a dog so much anyway?
Maybe she’s right; the responsibilities could get dreadfully annoying.
And the hair would cling on everything and we would find it everywhere.

But then, I thought some more.
“Dogs are so faithful.
They love so much, and unconditionally.
And, you can cuddle with a dog.
And…they greet you at the door when you get home.
Hey, I want my kids to have a faithful friend who loves unconditionally!
And I want my kids to have a dog they can cuddle and who greets them at the door!
I want my kids to experience the always faithful love of a dog!”

So, with renewed vigor, I decided to try again.
I shared all my thoughtful and noble reasons for getting a dog.
“Well,” she said.  “I’ll think about it.”
That was good.
Then she thought about it.
And she thought about it.
And then she thought about it some more.
After what seemed like forever, she finally broke her silence.
“Okay,” she said with resolve, “let’s get one.”
I said, “Okay then.”

I let her pick out the dog, whatever dog she wanted.
She chose a sweet little cuddly white Labrador puppy to be our seventh family member.
She was so adorable, with her wrinkly skin and her sweet puppy eyes.
My wife fell in love. 
So did I.

Our dog smells awful sometimes.
Our dog’s hair clings to everything and is found everywhere.
Our dog has massive bowl movements.
But, it turns out, all that stuff doesn’t matter all that much after all.

Cause’ our dog loves our kids like crazy.
Our dog is teaching our kids about faithful and unconditional love, God’s kind.
Our dog even greets us warmly at the door when we arrive home.
And, believe it or not, our lucky dog even gets to sleep on our bed.
For some reason our dog sleeps on my wife’s side of the bed every night.
Our dog likes to cuddle with my wife.
That makes me happy, not because I have more room to spread out.
I’m happy about the blessing our dog has been to all of our family members, especially to my wife.

And that’s a good thing.