Cats disgust me on an emotional level. With such an opening statement, I’m sure that I’ve just angered or alienated some readers. Please indulge me a bit of your time so that I can explain.
I agree that cats can be cute, especially kittens. Their purr is soothing. They know just how to be loving – when they want to. However, I saw something in our cats that really set me against them while I was mowing.
First of all, we have acquired these cats without our attempts or efforts. They just show up, stay, and reproduce. Back in May, a couple of cats had their litter of kittens. Oh goodie, we have more! The first cat drops four kittens in an open window well at the front of the house. No shelter. No way to get them out of the hot morning sun or the constant torrential rain. The other cat dropped her litter behind the cat house. Not in it which would have been the smart thing to do. Behind it – a place where rain will come down the siding of the house and drench the kittens.
At this point, it’s obvious that we don’t have the most intelligent cats. On the positive, I will say that the mother cats will lazily spend the day curled up with their kittens. But here’s where my disgust comes in. The cats are in the landscape, at least two feet from the grass. While mowing, I have to mow along the landscape. These mother cats will see me coming and run far out of sight, around the house, abandoning their kittens to spare their own lives.
Never once have I mowed in the landscape. Never once have I attempted to “mow” the kittens or the mothers, for that matter. I have never chased them with the mower. That doesn’t stop the mother cats from abandoning their kittens, even when the kittens are mid-suck at mealtime. And when the kittens get older, the mothers will take them to the woods and lose them, coming back without the kittens.
Then there’s the tom cats – they want nothing to do with their offspring. We’ve seen them kill their own children and attack the mothers. We’ve watched mother cats abandon a kitten if it’s not as strong and healthy. Through the years, we nursed a few sick ones to
health. Why didn’t the mother cat do that? Can you now understand my contempt?
In contrast, every year we have killdeer that come in our area. One of the most interesting things about this bird is that it will fake a broken wing and hobble away from its nest, trying to get predators to follow it. If they don’t follow, these birds will attack. The killdeer isn’t that big, but it will not be intimidated. They will protect their little ones. They will sit on those eggs and guard them with their life and when the eggs hatch, they will do the same if danger exists. Neither blistering sun, cold nights, pouring rain, nor howling winds will deter the mother birds from staying with the eggs.
I was mowing and hadn’t thought much about it when all of a sudden, this momma killdeer puffed up and started charging at me. She was not impressed by my presence and didn’t want me anywhere near. The sound of the mower, its movement, and the grass flying from the chute meant nothing to this mother. Startled, I stopped. She held her ground and never backed down. Slowly, I backed up and turned, and she went right back to her nest. As I was making the rounds, I could see the eggs she was protecting but if I got anywhere in her presumed danger zone, she would fan out her wings, fluff up, and stare me down.
What a contrast!
May and June are the months when we honor parents and parenting. Ephesians 6:1-4 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. (2) Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) (3) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. (4) And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
Parents who don’t parent find the same emotional place in my heart next to cats. That might sound harsh to say but if you’ve worked with the public and have seen some of the things done in the name of parenting, you are disgusted as well. I know you’ve felt that way when you’ve seen some of the displays of “parenting” that take place in Walmart!
Most sermons preached on this will take aim at the kids. They should obey. They should honor. They should do this or that. And I totally agree. But kids are kids. You don’t beat, abuse, or abandon your children to teach them a lesson. That’s animalistic and inhumane. Kids don’t know anything, they are immature, and they need to be taught, loved, and nurtured. That means dads and moms have a responsibility to their children.
By the way, I don’t say that to insult the kids. It’s not a putdown. It’s merely a fact experienced by 100% of humanity when they were at those ages. We come into this world as a blank slate needing to be taught and guided.
Ephesians also says that dads are not to provoke their children to wrath. The word provoke means to exasperate, rouse to anger. I have seen some sorry excuses of parenting through the years! Inconsistency, setting a child up to fail, riding them hard, disciplining unmercifully, gaslighting, and talking to them like ignorant failures provokes children to wrath and rebellion. When they act out, who gets blamed? The kids – even though the Bible says that the parent provoked them and that wrath was going to be the result.
As parents and grandparents, we have the wonderful privilege of shaping another individual’s life. We must be careful that we aren’t shaping them to be like us. Jesus is their ultimate model and as parents/grandparents, we have to emulate that example.
Cats demonstrate everything that is wrong with parenting. Killdeer show us what is right. Be a killdeer kind of parent – or grandparent.
Psalms 127:3 reminds us, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”
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