Coco Calling No.289 - On Trials and Tribulations

Do you sometimes have a day when things don’t work out quite as planned, or else chaos and disorder seem to rule instead of everything being ‘just right’? My owner had a morning like that the other day.

First of all, when he got up out of bed and used the downstairs toilet, he discovered a particularly large slug crawling up the wall next to where he was about to sit down. He scooped it up in some toilet paper and went out into the garden to shake it off into the undergrowth. But its slime made it stick to the paper. So he gave it a very wild shake, and the slug suddenly flew off at the wrong angle and sailed over the hedge into our neighbours garden. Whoops!

He then went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, only to discover that the two chickens had sneaked in and had no intention of leaving. A slow-motion chase started round and round the kitchen table until the pair of them were finally ejected into the garden.

Now in need of his tea more than ever, he boiled up a brew, and then carried it through to the lounge where he planned to have a quiet few moments to himself before launching into the day ahead. His rear end had just made contact with the sofa when he noticed a large pile of sawdust under the bureau in the corner of the room. Closer inspection revealed that ‘somebody’ with a powerful beak had done the unthinkable, and gnawed an upper edge clean off it.  

Oh dear. Life can present us with all kinds of trials and tribulations. And however hard we try, we can’t stop that from happening. But it’s our approach to life that really counts. A Christian faith helps us keep everything in perspective; after all, a bit of gnawed furniture is only a tiny hiccup along the road to perfection in Heaven. At least, that’s what I tried to tell my owner. And he’s forgiven me, so all is well again….until I do it again tomorrow.

“God never promises to remove us from our struggles.

He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.”   

(Max Lucado:[1955-present]: American church minister, Christian author and evangelist)

“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” 

(Mother Teresa: [1910-1997]: Albanian nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor and destitute in Calcutta, and later elsewhere. She was posthumously canonised in 2016)

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” 

(Romans 12:12)

 

Parrot Note:                                                                                                       

My owner and I are now going on a short Summer migration to the Isles of Scilly, so our next blog will be on Wednesday 28th August after we get back. So, in the meantime, be kind to yourselves, and I hope the sun shines on you!