Precious Lord, help me to care for
and love those I find unlovable, for
they need it most of all. AMEN

A Point to Ponder...
After forty, life is just a physical
maintenance job.

THE POTATO PUPPY


My four-year-old son, Shane, had been asking
for a puppy
for over a month, but his Daddy kept saying,
"No dogs! A dog will dig up the garden
and chase the ducks and kill our rabbits. No
dog, and that's final!"

Each night, Shane prayed for a puppy,
and each morning he was disappointed
when there was no puppy waiting outside.

I was peeling potatoes for dinner,
and he was sitting on the floor at my feet
asking for the thousandth time,
"Why won't Daddy let me have a puppy?"

"Because they are a lot of trouble.
Don't cry. Maybe Daddy will change his
mind someday," I encouraged him. 
"No, he won't, and I'll never have a puppy
in a million years," Shane wailed.  I looked
into his dirty, tear-streaked face.
How could we deny him his one wish?

So I said the words that were first
spoken by Eve, "I know a way to make
Daddy change his mind."  "Really?"
Shane wiped away his tears and sniffed.
I handed him a potato.

  "Take this and carry it with you
until it turns into a puppy," I whispered. 
"Never let it out of your sight for one
minute. Keep it with you all the time,
and on the third day,
tie a string around it and drag it
around the yard and see what happens!"

Shane grabbed the potato with both hands.
"Mama, how do you make a potato into a puppy?"
He turned it over and over in his little hands.

"Shh! It's a secret!" I whispered and sent him on
his way.

"Lord, you know what a woman must do
to keep peace in her home!" I prayed.

Shane faithfully carried his potato around
for two days, he slept with it, bathed with it and
talked to it.

On the third day, I said to my husband,
"We really should get a pet for Shane."  
"What makes you think he needs a pet?"
my husband leaned against the doorway.

"Well, he's been carrying a potato around
with him for days. He calls it "Wally"
and says it is his pet. He sleeps with it on his pillow and right now
he has a string tied to it and he's dragging it
around the yard," I said.

"A potato?" my husband asked and looked out
the window and watched Shane taking his potato
for a walk.

"It will break his heart when the potato
gets mushy and rots," I said and started
getting out food for lunch, "Besides, every time
I try to peel  potatoes for dinner, Shane
cries
because he says I'm killing Wally's family."

"A potato?" my husband asked, "My son has a pet
potato?"

"Well," I said shrugging, "you said he couldn't
have a puppy. He was so disappointed, in his mind,
he decided he had to have a pet..."

"That's crazy!" my husband said.

"Maybe you're right, but explain to me why
he is dragging that potato around the yard on a
string," I said.

My husband watched our son for a few more
minutes.

"I'll bring home a puppy tonight, I'll stop by the
animal shelter after work. I guess a puppy can't be that
much trouble," he sighed, "It's better than a
potato."

That night, Shane's Daddy brought home a
wiggling puppy and a pregnant white cat that
he took pity on while he was at the shelter.

Everyone was happy. My husband thought he'd
saved his son from a nervous breakdown.
Shane had a puppy,
a cat and five kittens and believed
his Mother had magic powers that could
change a potato into a puppy. And I
was happy because I got my potato back
and cooked it for dinner.

Everything was perfect, until one
evening when I was cooking dinner,
Shane tugged on my dress and asked,
"Mama, do you think I could have a pony for my
birthday?"

~~~(author unknown)~~~

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