THE RIGHT THING
“Go ahead Bobby”! – “Do it”! — “Hurry up he’s suffering”! — – — “SHOOT”!!! He urged his little brother on. The little brother stood there with their grandpa’s shotgun in his shaking hands, on the long end of the two barrels was a point blank bead on the villain; the hole diggin’ ground hog…
The big groundhog was wounded in the trap, but not dead yet. “I can’t do it”! Bobby said with a hint of water in his eyes as he pushed the gun into his big brother’s arms.
“That’s okay, I’ll do it”… Dean pointed quickly toward the suffering rodent and squeezed the trigger. “Well, he’s done diggin’ holes in the cows pasture I guess,” Dean mumbled the obvious.
As they walked back to the house to show their grandpa the cattle leg breaking villain, a somber older brother asked his little brother, who had volunteered for the job of executioner, why he didn’t pull the trigger. “I just couldn’t,” Bobby explained, ”He was lookin’ at me with those eyes and I just couldn’t kill em’.”
Dean understood the gravity of the situation and chose to wait to tease his little brother at a later date, “I understand.” Dean said with a slight chuckle.
Dean chose that setting to offer his little brother 2 1/2 years his junior a life lesson he was still learning himself as little more than a child. “Sometimes it’s not easy to do the right thing,” – “Hard to know what’s right,” he said.
Bobby just nodded, as if to understand, with a straight ahead sullen face. The laughing, joking, and planning about how he was going to be the trigger man to that cow killing varmint were completely gone from his conscience and memory.
There was no joy in killing. It was only for necessity and as a last resort. Fighting had the same ground rules in our household as kids, but that rule was broken more than once.
The discipline of principles and character while difficult, define a person. The opposite of the principled person is the one who allows strictly emotions to guide their life. How we feel about certain issues should not always determine the decisions we make. The principles that guide our life should be the determining factors of a decision and action.
We see a society now that bases all their decisions on how they “feel,” without the foundation of principles as defined from a Biblical perspective. We have a society of soft individuals wishing to live in peace and harmony… A great idea within the confines of human nature, an impossibility in a fallen world.
I can’t remember seeing my oldest brother Dean over the last fifteen years more than 3 or 4 times without his dog Teddy, whom he called Ted. When Teddy was at the end of his life and the cancer had all but finished him, Dean had a decision to make. Would he take Ted to a hospital, which was the only thing that heeler feared, or would he take one more trip to the desert?
I’d love to be able to say that Dean took Ted for one more ride to their desert retreat, smelling the creosote bush against a clean, clear, dry desert night air. I’d like to think Dean would let the dust settle after pulling to a stop. He would look over at his old faithful companion with sorrow only known to a man and a dog that spent virtually every waking hour over a decade and a half.
As Dean would get out of the truck, turn back toward the cab into the passenger seat where his best friend usually rode. “C-mon Ted”! I can hear him say. He’d pet Ted one more time… “Good boy Ted,” he’d whisper one more time… As he was patting Ted’s side, I can picture Dean reach into his back pocket, take out his pistol with Ted looking out at the desert night air and end his suffering.
If my brother would have been on his farm in Texas, that’s how it would have gone down. Or if Ted could have walked… My brother told me it was harder to have Ted in his lap with his arms holding his old friend while sitting in their pickup truck, as the doctor gave Ted a shot…
I can almost hear my big brother say, “Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing.”
“Hard to know what’s right”…..
I knew my brother would do the hardest thing…
That’s almost always the right answer…
Helen
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 9:33 am
I’m sorry your brother had to go through that. I’m sure it’s hard to put down a beloved pet. (Allergies kept me from having a dog or cat, and this just isn’t an issue anyone ever has with tropical fish. Still, I feel bad for an animal that suffers, or a human who has to make this choice.)
Floyd
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 12:44 pm
Thanks Helen, we all have to make difficult decisions and it seems the hardest one are always the best ones. Thank God for his strength.
Jason Stasyszen
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 4:37 pm
I’ve never had to pull the trigger like that before, but I know it would be hard. Great analogy. We as a society are conditioned to finding the easy way out and path of least resistance. It heads to a place we don’t want to end up in though. Thanks Floyd.
Floyd
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 5:04 pm
Thank you Jason. I have to confess, I too often look for the path of least resistance as well. I agree, in the end it’s going to take us to the worst possible place. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for all the insight this week. It was a huge blessing.
Hazel
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 5:24 pm
Your post brought back memories of our animals. The right thing is hard to do at times, but your brother did the right thing to take Ted to the Dr for a painless path into sleep. I tried to kill a chicken once, but finally handed the ax to my brother who did the deed.
Floyd
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 6:02 pm
It was the right thing for him. I really do think the hardest things usually are the hardest things. This life is filled with difficult choices. The problem with our society now is that everyone takes the easy way out. I’ve been guilty of it myself. I gotta work on that. Thanks for sharing Hazel.
Bt
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 5:50 pm
Taking (ending) a life is at the far end the spectrum of decisions we are asked to make and should be a very difficult thing to do! But doing the right thing “in general” should not be. You are correct that in today’s society to many people use “good feeling emotions” vs. well founded principles to guide them.
My head football coach said … “Have a spiritual basis which guides you in life. Have a philosophy of life to live by.”
Decisions in life that always produce happy endings, is like offence in football … offence sells tickets … doing what’s right, even if it’s hard … is like defense in football … defense wins championships. Sooner rather than later the football fans want a championship … Let’s pray that the fans of America decide they want to be champions again and do THE RIGHT THING…. soon!!
Floyd
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 6:05 pm
WELL SAID! I have to say for our country you summed it up perfectly. Leave it to you big ole’ linebackers to make quick and easy sense out of something most of us think are difficult. Nice job. Thanks. Looking forward to another run at being the champs!
Barbara
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 7:09 pm
One night the wind blew so hard that our dog Rommel got out. Rommel was our big 14 yr old German shepherd. We looked all over for him, we were so worried he got hit by a car for Rommel was blind the last 5 years of his life. Finally we found him at the pound and the workers suggested we have Rommel put down, cuz he was old and had some illnesses. It took a lot of prayer, but it was the right thing to do, cuz Rommel isn’t hurting anymore. The sad part was at the last minute we had a change of mind, but it was too late. We shouldn’t of entertained on going back to the pound to get our dog. Do the best and right thing and leave it!
Floyd
Saturday, July 30, 2011 @ 9:00 am
My brother wouldn’t take his dog inside the vet’s, that was the only thing Ted was afraid of. He made them come out to his truck so the last thing that happened in Ted’s life was with his best friend, in his truck holding him. It’s a difficult thing to know the right thing to do in times like that. I think regardless of the action we tend to question ourselves. There’s just no perfect way to face death. Thanks for sharing something so personal.
Lenna Wyatt
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 7:15 pm
I had a main coon cat that I dearly loved, got her as a kitten, rather she got me, when I was moving from a mobile home to a house. She was one of a batch of strays it seemed. No one claimed them but she kept following me as I loaded boxes in my car. I scooped her up and she sat on the back of the seat with paws on my shoulder as if she’d always done that. Got to my new home and she walked up to the door like she knew she lived there. I’m a germ freak so she always slept on a trunk at the foot of my bed, and in the night she would reach a paw and touch my foot. How I loved Muffin for 6 yrs. and then someone poisoned her. I’ve had no desire for another pet – it hurts to much to lose them. By the way Floyd, I tell that story in my novel when you get around to reading it. Now I have to say your story was more than excellent, conveying the feelings of losing a pet, and the wonderful way you write. A book of these “blogs” would be a best seller! Lenna
Floyd
Saturday, July 30, 2011 @ 9:08 am
Thanks Lenna! Those are inspiring words, much like your writings. I’m looking forward to reading your novel. That was a great story about Muffin, it’s even better because she chose you. My first dog Pee Wee was like that. We were at a ranch where my uncle boarded his horse. There was a litter of pups and my uncle told me to take one. Like any little kid, I’d been playing with them the whole time. When all the other pups got distracted, only the one that would be come to known as Pee Wee stayed with me. He kinda chose me the way Muffin chose you.
That goofy dog was a companion to me and my brothers from the time I was in early grade school until high school. When we moved to the big city, while moving things from our small town one weekend someone broke the gate of out house and let Pee Wee out. He no doubt attempted the trek back to the Colorado River. I never saw him again.
Pat
Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 11:01 pm
Wow! The picture you’re painting here (or maybe it’s just the picture I’m getting in my own crazy mind) is h-u-g-e! A particular scripture came to my mind immediately,
Deut. 30:19 – “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life…!” There is so0o much meat within this one verse…but I’ll try really hard to be brief.
On the outset, it sounds like an easy choice – life over death. But for those of us who have chosen life (spiritual life), we know just how narrow and lonely that road can be. I have had to make difficult decisions, not with my animals but with my children. The decision to follow as God leads is not often a popular one, even within the church, but it is the only one.
Who we are and what we believe do define us, whether we like to think so or not. I think what our choices really reflect is the DEGREE to which we believe what we believe.
It would be wise of us to pay special attention to the second sentence in that verse: “…I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make…”
(I love it when you write these deeply thought-provoking posts!)
Floyd
Saturday, July 30, 2011 @ 9:32 am
Well Pat, I have to admit, you’ve made this post better than I could have designed it. That verse is HUGE! “I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make…” Although having read this verse many times in my life, the gravity of it as you’ve presented it is like feeling the true impact of it for the first time.
May God give me and all of us the strength to make the choices everyday of our lives that lift Him up and bring Him honor. May our choices bring a smile to His face.
Thanks for the wisdom and the lesson you’ve brought us and taught us today. The Holy Spirit used you today. Thanks for your obedience. God Bless you and yours.
patty
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 @ 11:34 am
Floyd ,
This has touched my heart ,Makes me think of my sweet little Bailey my friend to the end .was with me threw my cancer wouldn’t of made it with out him .I still think of him and I burn a little candel by his ashes every night .was the hardest thing for me to do but I held him in my arms while the vet gave him his shot and I felt his last breath but I wouldn’t have had it any other way I was with my buddy till the end . Your story has brought back memories and has made me feel better just reading this tells me i did the right thing .
Floyd
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 @ 4:32 pm
Patty, I know how much Bailey meant to you. I believe he was a blessing from God. When they say they are man’s best friend, I believe it. The unyielding loyalty is heart changing. I didn’t know the ending, but I knew you’d do the right thing. It’s just who you are. God bless Patty.
Hazel
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 @ 2:49 pm
Thinking again about your story triggered a couple memories that I have posted on my site. To Kill a Chicken is my post today! I gave you credit and hope you get some readers.
Floyd
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 @ 3:04 pm
I’m honored! I read your post today. It was wonderful. Your heart was created for bigger and better things. Keep up the great work! Thanks Hazel!
jake
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 @ 8:27 pm
It’s fascinating to see the errors we make in dealing with our emotions. We do like you said and make them into EVERYTHING, but on the other hand, we also ignore them. They happen for a reason and though they are a reality, we have to see the truth behind them, which your story so adequately illustrated. Good job, friend.
Floyd
Thursday, August 4, 2011 @ 7:50 am
Thank you Jake. The truth is so much easier seen in arrears isn’t it? Sometimes even when focusing with the right perspective it’s difficult to see the right path to take. Emotions are a powerful thing and seems to be gaining momentum in our current society. Decisions made with character of Biblical principles are always the right move, even if difficult to do.
Betty Jo
Saturday, July 29, 2017 @ 9:09 am
Wonderful writing, as always, Floyd. Brought tears to my eyes, as I’ve only had one pet in my life, and my husband and I had to make the “hard” decision. Due to severe allergies to pets, it was my one and only, but he will live in my memories forever. It truly is hard sometimes, to do the right thing.
I pray all is well with you and your precious family. ♥