“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” (Psalm 56:3)
When the first three of our five children were still just small, my husband’s brother, Wendell gave to us our first family pet. It was a thoroughbred German Shepherd which his children had already named Pizza. Imagine a German dog with an Italian name! She became a fierce protector of the children and we needed not to fear strangers walking into our yard or home when the children were present!
At the time, my husband was often invited to preach revival meetings in neighboring towns and villages and would be gone from home for a week at a time, leaving me alone to care for the children. I really was not afraid but I didn’t realize just how much I depended on our German Shepherd for that lack of fear and not on my Lord Himself.
The dog had learned to open the screen door to our basement and come right into the house on her own. All I had to do was open the door to the basement upstairs in the hallway and whistle while calling, “Pizza, come!” and she would hear from the yard, open the outside screen door with her paw and come up the basement stairs to where she found me standing in the hallway.
One night about the middle of the week, when I answered a knock at the kitchen door and greeted a young visitor, the dog darted through the open door and was gone. I called and called her but to no avail. I knew I couldn’t leave the babies to go look for her. When the visitor left, I started down the hallway to check on the sleeping babies and suddenly for no explainable reason, I was overcome with fear that someone was in the hallway and following me! My first though was, “I wish Pizza were here.” It seemed that my Lord spoke to me audibly and said, “Audrey, who are you looking to for protection? Me or the dog?” I realized immediately that I had taken my eyes off the Lord and Satan had used it to bring real fear into my heart. I stopped right where I was and prayed “Oh God, I’m sorry for not trusting you. Right now I just put my safety and Pizza into your hands. Send her home in your time.” I went on down the hall; checked on the sleeping little ones and went to my own bedroom to prepare for bed. As I did, I realized that the fear had left me and I felt perfectly safe although Pizza still had not come home.
An hour or so later, I heard a loud whining and a scratching at the door. I went to the door and there was Pizza! I opened the door and she marched right in as if she had only been out in the yard to relieve herself and was asking to be let back in. I have no idea where she went or what she had been doing all that time, but I do know that God answered my prayer and sent her back home to us.
Never again did I experience such profound fear when left alone while my husband was away taking care of the Master’s business. I had learned the truth of the scriptures.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid.” (Psalm 27:1)
Audrey Mullen