The mind of man plans his way,
but the LORD directs his steps. 

Proverbs 16:9

You just never know when you will have a real need to apply some extra wisdom. On Day 7 we discussed how saturating our lives with God’s wisdom allows us to readily access that wisdom throughout a day for big decisions and for not-so big decisions. I am in the middle of such need this past week.

It is 4:00AM EST and I am wide awake in the middle of January and sitting on a hotel couch with our new dog, Coco! She is a four-year-old beautiful brindle bull mastiff! She is not a stranger to us. A family member has moved internationally for a few years and couldn’t take her with their family, so we offered to care for her for as long as needed. Sounds pretty simple, right? Um…No!

For starters, she lives 1000 miles away which requires driving through several mountain ranges. Next, we thought we would be transferring her several months ago, but a variety of events prevented that. Now add in, winter and she lives in the northeast. And just for fun add in my spouse has a temp job in another state and cannot help with the driving. (Not a huge deal because I am a driving machine and love to drive…but it is winter! Did I mention that?) And, we live in the south. Mix in winter with the south and it can get interesting. And one last piece of this adventure; most, and I mean most hotels will not take dogs over 80 pounds. As a female, Coco is half the size of the HUGE mail mastiffs, but she is still larger than what most hotels will allow. 

And here is where God’s wisdom has been so important to me personally right now. In the last 7 days, various winter events and storms have taken place or were supposed to take place. Winter wreaked havoc with my initial travel itinerary to swoop up this precious gentle giant. I can drive in the snow; was raised in it, but freezing rain…not so much! And in the south, even a splatter of winter stuff shuts down everything! In the south, our snow removal plan is called, “The Sun”!

This also altered the hotels I had investigated where I could, honestly, (key word there) bring Coco. I think my plans of which route to take and which hotel to stay in and how far can I drive without getting sleepy has changed at least 5 times!! Every detail of this travel adventure has had to be brought to the LORD. I’ve had family members and friends praying for me to make wise decisions about all the little things because, as is often the case, the little things truly matter for me right now.

You may ask, why am I awake at 4:00AM? It’s easy to answer. Coco is confused, not afraid, just wondering why this woman she sorta knows is removing her from her comfort zone and packing her in a car. She is crate trained, but the crate wouldn’t fit in my car, which I kind of figured so had a backup plan for safe travel for her. But, she is restless about sleeping. So, I sit here on the couch and she is sound asleep next to me. I hope to tiptoe back to bed soon and catch another hour of sleep before we head to the next destination (changed just a few minutes ago) and then home tomorrow!

God’s wisdom has been crucial to me in my little corner of life this past week and I thank Him for watching over me so tenderly. I will be back into the Proverbs Wisdom Calls study soon with Day 8 and I trust this small testimony of God’s amazing love for each of us and His watchfulness over His creation (Coco) has been a blessing for you.