Monty is our cavalier king Charles spaniel that is truly a king of the house. He loves to go out of the house when we go out. He wants to come in when we come in. He loves to sit on the inside furniture when we sit (but he’s not allowed).  He loves to go to his bed in our bedroom when we go to bed. He cries when he is in his bed and we are not ready to go to bed. He loves to be close to the dinner table when we are eating (he is not permitted to be around the table per Nadine’s rules). When we go places he wants to come. He is for all practical purposes Nadine’s shadow as she has truly spoiled our once male dog.

Yesterday was a hilarious experience that all of us experience . Nadine was going in and out of the house and Monty was doing his thing of going in and coming out. Going in and coming out. On one occasion during their excursions, Nadine assumed that Monty had gone out with her to water the flowers. After being there for a while, she called, “Monty. . .Monty” to no avail. “Monty. . . Monty” but he was nowhere to be found. She became somewhat anxious and started thinking about getting in the car to look for him. As she went into the garage, she heard a whimpering inside the house and opened it to find that he was in the house all the time.

This is not unlike us sometimes when we make assumptions in our lives. We assume what others are thinking or feeling. We assume what God must be thinking or feeling. As we go down a wrong road, we begin to assume the worst.

True confession time.  When I was 5 years old my dad and I went to Flagler to the grocery store.  In the process of checking out I saw the candy bars next to the check out lane.  Rather than asking dad for a Seven-up candy bar that cost $.10, I stole the candy bar and put it in my pocket.  On the 10 minute drive home I felt so guilty for what I had done.  The candy bar was burning a hole in my conscience.  As soon as I got home I ran over the neighbor lady and gave the candy bar to her and told her to give it to her children.  My point in telling this story is that I assumed the worst punishment possible–jail time for my crime.  Major whipping from my dad.  For three weeks I had a piece of paper and pencil on my desk and prayed to God to write on the paper what I should do.  As time passed, my assumptions of what would happen to me got worse.

Yet when we find out the truth, the assumptions in our head are rarely true and often aren’t nearly as bad as we supposed. It’s often like that with the Lord. When we do something wrong and are convicted by His Spirit, we begin to think the worst when all He wants us to do is remove the assumptions in our life and understand the truth. The prodigal son had that problem as he thought that his father would be so upset that he had squandered his inheritance.  When he came back, his father ran to meet him and threw him a big welcome party.  The son assumed the worst in his father and got the best. (Luke 15:11-32)

On our journey it’s essential to cut away assumptions in our life and begin basing our lives, actions, and attitudes on the truth. “Monty was in the house.”