Gonna Love You Anyway

Some of the best lessons I’ve ever learned came from my dogs. I’m convinced that we could live much better lives if we paid more attention to the simple lives of our pets.

My wife and I have three dogs … Black, Bailey, and Bacon. Black is the oldest and Bacon is the youngest. Bailey finds herself in the middle, with a giant heart and an urge to love everyone in the pack. She loves to live and lives to love. Now, if you aren’t a member of the pack, she will chew your arm off at the elbow and not think twice. But if you’re in the pack, prepare to be licked to death.

Every day Bailey looks forward to cleaning Bacon’s face. She will lick from the top of her head to the bottom of her chin, meticulously cleaning every part of her face. Bacon normally lays still and enjoys the attention, but yesterday Bacon was in a grumpy mood and didn’t care much to have her face cleaned. She started growling, but that obviously didn’t concern Bailey since she kept licking her face. In fact, the more Bacon growled, the more Bailey licked. She wasn’t going to let anything change her love for Bacon. It was as if Bailey were saying, “You may be grumpy, but I’m gonna love you anyway.” In the end, Bailey won out. She pushed forward and loved her past the grumpiness.

What a great lesson for us all. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could do the same as humans? We tend to put conditions on love. “I’ll love you as long as you see things my way.” Or, “I’ll love you as long as you love me back.” Sometimes we just need to push forward and love past the grumpiness. Simply put, it’s unconditional love. I suppose it is no different than God’s love for you and me — unconditional and undeserved. Pretty cool to get that simple reminder from a dog.