We recently took in a little kitty cat that was hurt. He had apparently been in a fight with another animal and had a bad bite on his leg which led to a pretty bad infection. We brought him in, made him a bed, took him to the vet and showered him with love.
Now we have a new cat named Huckle. And he’s sweet.
And for the last couple of weeks I have watched my two kids interact with Huckle and talk with him and I have witnessed such sweet words of comfort as they care for this little kitty cat.
Asher has been heard saying every so gently, “You got into a fight, ya? and you hurt your leg? Awww, we will take care of you..” And..” You have to stay in here now Huckle, it’s dark outside now and we want you to stay here. Yes..” And.. '”We love you Huckle”.. All said as he gently strokes Huckle and looks at him.
Coming from Hannah, as she cocks her head to the side, shaking it up and down as she talks with her eyes half closed.. (she’s a little dramatic about it..). she has been heard saying.. “Your leg hurts Huckle? yes, I know.. it’s okay baby.. “ Or.. “You okay sweetie?” and.. “I love you Huckle… “. And then she leans in and kisses his head.
he purrs.. A lot.
I realize a lot of what they are saying, they hear from me.. and Yes, I do say those things to our animals.. and yes, I realize that some people may think that is weird. They lack a heart.. but I’ll move on.. Kidding.. sort of..
But, I love that Asher and Hannah are learning to be compassionate towards someone who is in great need of compassion. And my hope is that as they get older and they begin seeing people who are hurting, that the compassion they have learned now towards animals will be evident in how they relate to others.
And I realize how important it is for John and I as their parents to be an evident example of compassion to others – animals and people – because our kids DO what we do and if we DO compassion, they they will too. But if what we end up doing as we interact with people is impatience, or rudeness, or sarcasm, or unloving.. then that is what they will do as well.
Besides, in Colossians, we are told to CLOTHE ourselves with COMPASSION. God wants us to be compassionate; to care about the welfare of others. And to do something about that .
So, we start by taking in a stray kitty cat who is hurt, who has probably never known what it is like to live indoors or to be loved or to be spoken to kindly by a 2 and 3 year old who are very concerned about his hurt leg.
And maybe some day, Asher and Hannah will be taking in and caring for bigger things then cats..
I’m just glad they know compassion and they care about animals.
And although Huckle still isn’t real sure about this living in a house bit or about the other cats who live here who aren’t real sure about him.. he’ll come around.
who are you showing compassion to?
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