He doesn’t even know that he can’t do everything the others do.

He thinks he can do anything.

 

Moses runs around in the backyard, chasing the ball and playing with the kids. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a squirrel running along the back fence and he is there in an instant, following it until it is out of sight. Then, when no one seems to be paying any attention to him anymore, he runs up the ramp and sticks his head in Sr. Mary’s door, knowing he can always get attention there.

 

Moses doesn’t realize that only having three legs instead of four should keep him from doing many of the things that he does. Moses was rescued by GRIN (Golden Retrievers in Need) after he was either lost or abandoned by his owner and then found as a stray. His leg had been injured, treated, and then reinjured. After the most recent injury, he did not receive the proper care and his leg was so hurt, it couldn’t be healed. So it was removed. But only having three legs hasn’t slowed him down a bit.

 

Moses has made a big impact on our kids. When they first meet him, they just kind of stare at him and remark, "He only has three legs!" Then they watch as he hops up to them on his front leg, waiting for them to pet him. It doesn’t take long for them to get comfortable with him and soon they are rolling on the floor with him, throwing him the ball, and using him for a pillow as they watch a movie.

 

One little boy arrived at the house for a visit and the first thing he asked was, "Where’s the dog with the broken leg." He had been at the house recently for a visit and had become very attached to Moses. Sr. Mary then explained that Moses’ leg wasn’t broken, that it just wasn’t there. Some of the kids thought that if it was "broken," it could be fixed, restored to the way it used to be. But then they somehow came to understand that "fixing it" really wasn’t important to Moses. He was fine just the way he was.

 

One day out in the back yard, some of the children were playing and one of the girls was having a hard time mastering a new game. Just then Moses ran by and the girl paused a minute then replied under her breath, "If Moses can do it, then so can I."

 

Resilience is a trait our children need, but many of them don’t have the skills to develop it. If they have been living in an environment where they have witnessed repeated failure and lack of motivation, they don’t know how, nor do they even want to try to overcome the barriers that they encounter. They easily give up because they don’t know how to struggle.

 

It would be nice if we could take away all of the difficulties our children must face, but we can’t. And we shouldn’t. In our imperfect world, we have to learn how to deal with the bad times as well as the good times and we can only do this through struggle. So we may not always be able to fix everything for our children, but we can be with them and help them learn to experience the sweetness of success, as they figure out how to make the bad better.

 

I think our kids see themselves in Moses. They see that he was hurt, but he has mended. They see that he may not be whole in body, but that he is whole in spirit.

 

They know that he doesn’t look like all of the other dogs, but it doesn’t matter to them.

They love him as he is.

And someday when they grow up, they want to be just like him.