The Cat Lesson

The Cat Lesson

It is amazing how God uses the young to teach us lessons.

My daughter shared a conversation she had with her 6-year-old son, and it sure got me thinking;

E: “Why is this cat mean? I wish it was nice.”

J:” It is a nice cat, it is just old. Sometimes when you are old, you are mean, because you are sore and tired.”

E: “Well, I have 2 Papas and 2 Grandmas, and they are old, and none of them scratch me or bite me or even hiss at me!”

J: “That is true. But they are also not cats…”

Though sometimes we are old cats, maybe not because we are old but because we are over stressed or tired, even depressed. We tend to snap and growl for no reason at all.

When my children were growing up, I was a bit of a snarly cat. I tended to be a yeller/ screamer. It relieved my tension, so I wouldn’t do worse. That doesn’t make it right, and it wasn’t good for my kids, it added to their tension.

We have an old cat, Snowball; he’s 12. Snowball is and always has been a talker, even singing through his supper, but he is a gentle old cat and knows better than to hurt E.

My husband told the kids to sing their complaints; it is hard to stay mad when you’re singing. This advice was a good reminder for me as well. On snarly days it reminded me to take a breath and pray before I reacted, to speak in gentler tones with more love. I still have days when I growl and hiss, but ask my kids, and they will tell you not near as much as I used to.

Find yourself a gentle old cat and learn from them how they handle days they feel like hissing. Draw close to GOD and help teach the next generation they don’t have to act like snarly old cats. It can stop here with you.

Snarly cat.

Proverbs 21:19 Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and nagging wife.

Proverbs 27:15

A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;

Gentle Cat

Proverbs 31:10

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.