Goat Therapy

Todays contributor is Bonita Lillie. Bonita  is a freelance writer, writing instructor, and homeschooling mom of two.  She’s enjoyed 17 years of goat therapy with her beloved, John. You can read more about her life lessons at
www.homeschoolblogger.com/Lilliepad.

Goat Therapy

They were always butting heads.  They rarely got along.  He acted so macho
and domineering.  She knew how to push his buttons.  It was an ongoing war
and I lived beside it.  These were the old goats that lived next door.  I
mean that quite literally, they were goats in the sense of having four legs
and fur.  Caesar and Nanny taught me much about the dos and don’ts of
marriage.  You might say I got regular sessions in goat therapy.  These are
the lessons I learned.

G- Giving.  Goats are selfish.  When we shared food scraps with our furry
neighbors it created a war.  Each goat cared only about what he or she
could get for self and gave little thought to the other’s needs.  In
fact, they would engage in fierce head butting to see who could get the
most food.

Unfortunately, in marriage we often engage in our own sort of head butting.
Maybe the battle isn’t over who will get the most dinner, but you can bet
that it’s over something just as selfish.  I’ve heard so many people say
that marriage is a 50/50 deal with each person contributing something to the
union.  I couldn’t disagree more.  A healthy, strong marriage requires
that each person bring 100% to the table.  Each must be willing to give and
sacrifice self for the other.

O- Order.  Caesar demanded his rights as the head of the yard.  Nanny
allowed him to carry that title only because he was a bigger brute and she
couldn’t beat him in battle.  Neither had any respect for God-given order
in a relationship.

In a marriage, someone has to lead and someone has to follow.  God has
given the husband the role of leading the family and the wife is to be his
helper. It sounds so simple, but it isn’t so easy to live out.  I can
think of so many times in my own marriage when fear or pride prompted me to
try to take the reigns.  For things to run smoothly the proper order must be
intact.

A- Accountability. You will never meet a more stubborn, disobedient
creature than a goat.  Once Caesar got out of the yard and I watched an
inexperienced teenager try to wrestle him back inside the gate.  He stood
his ground, refusing to budge an inch until I dangled a carrot over the
fence. His decisions and actions were his own and he was accountable to no
one.

We, however, are accountable to God and to our mate.  We can’t act any
way we choose, but our actions must line up with the principles of God’s
word.  The way we treat out spouse matters.  We also need to respect the
boundaries of our marriage vows.  We can’t simply do as we please without
consequence.

T- Teamwork- At one time Caesar and Nanny had a goat house, a shelter from
storms.  Bit by bit they ate away at that house until one day it fell with
a great thud.  Their protection was gone.
Proverbs 14:1 tells us that The wise woman builds her house, but with her
own hands the foolish one tears hers down. (NIV)  We are constantly
building or destroying our marriage.  We can join with our mate and build
the relationship together or we can nitpick, complain, point out our
husband’s flaws and generally have a negative attitude until we cause the
marriage to crumble.  A husband and wife who function as a team can weather
any storm, but those who are divided will be devastated when the storms of
life come.

One day the goats moved away and I don’t know what became of them, but I
imagine that the behavior they exhibited here simply carried over to the
next place.  They were set in their ways, not about to change. We don’t
have to be like them.  We can indulge in a little G.O.A.T. therapy and
watch our marriages thrive and the good news is the therapists won’t even
send us a bill!