My father and I ran today. I ran 2 miles straight! HA! It may not seem like a lot, but it's a record for me and by the end of it I was
pooped!

We have an inside dog and an outside dog.  The inside dog - Whimsy - is relatively small, covered in black matted hair (that hides all of his features so you don't know which end is which - scary when you see company go to give him a kiss!), and all he does with his mouth is let out high-pitched barks and howls that bats can hear, whenever company arrives. 
 

Our outside dog is almost completely the opposite.
  She’s a girl (Abby), name begins with a letter at front of the alphabet, blonde straight hair, mutt, older, much higher from the ground than Whimsy, and all she does with her mouth is give a low, intimidating growls or barks when company arrives and then, once they have her approval, smothers them with wet, slobbery kisses.

These two dogs are best friends, and often times we’ll come home to find that Whimsy, somehow, escaped the indoors to go on a gallivanting quest with his dear friend Abby.
  Today was such a day and when I came home from work my mom told me about today’s dog-quest.
  They incidentally smelled like manure.
 

My father runs almost every day – 8 miles a day, (I plan on working my way up…)
  and often times he’ll take Whimsy for a run outside (visit
www.sethbarnes.com
and click on the
Lap dog-Running dog blog), allowing Whimsy to let his desire for a gallivant in a nice run.
  Today when I decided to run with my father he looked at Whimsy and said, “Whimsy, come along.”
   I told him about his recent walk-about (as we Barnes’ like to call them), and that he’s been a bad dog, that he shouldn’t come today.
  My dad let him anyway.

Abby, despite her old age, put forth a great effort in joining us.
  Excited to be a part of it all, the two dogs ran and ran along side my father and me.
  Whimsy was off the leash and went racing far ahead, Abby lagging behind –with me…
  My father would constantly say, authority ringing in his voice, “Whimsy! Come here.
 Good boy.”
  Whimsy would come back and run alongside my dad for awhile before venturing ahead again, repeating the episode of owner giving room to run, then calling him back to walk beside him, then Whimsy running off again.

Abby and I followed my dad at our own good pace. 
 But as I watched this funny episode of my father continuously calling back my stupid dog just to watch him run farther ahead and then repeat the event yet again, I couldn’t help but think of our walk with the Lord.
  It’s very often much like the occurrence I saw with my dad and my dog.
  We stray from God, excited about life we race ahead, knowing He’s right there behind us.
  He’ll call us back, we’ll run to him with a smile, jog alongside Him, before racing on again.
  God’s there, holding the even pace he knows we can keep up with.
  We just have to stick with him.
  We have to seek him, run beside him, not presumptuously in front of him.
  We have to build up our capacity to accomplish great things, to save the world and bring glory to his name; to run those 8 miles instead of 2.