Boundaries? What Boundaries?

For those of you who joined us recently, this is Bruiser, our 10 1/2 year old Golden Retriever. Yes, I know...isn't he adorable? Add mischievous and protective and jealous...you get the idea. But, he's a wonderful companion and a great watch dog. Although he's mostly inside, nobody steps foot into our yard without us knowing about it.

A few weeks ago, hubby noticed Bruiser edging closer to the neighbor's yard, so we knew the collar battery for the electric fence must've croaked. I wasn't too worried. We've lived in the house for almost eight years, with an electric fence the entire time. Since the initial training period and a couple times trying to follow hubby to the mailbox, Bruiser never wanders outside his boundaries.

But, I ordered the new battery anyway because the brute's much bigger and heavier than our neighbor's two small children. He's a bit, um, exuberant with kids (I don't even allow him alone with our grandkids) and I was more worried about him hurting them accidentally than him running into the road. As hubby says, Bruiser wouldn't wander too far from his food dish.

The day after I ordered the battery, Bruiser made it all the way to the neighbor's swingset. See that big tree in the middle? That's the edge of our property.

Seriously? With a half acre of his own to play in and living here all this time, Bruiser still tests his boundaries?

Seriously? All this I've given you to enjoy and you still test your boundaries? How many times has God whispered those same words to me? Gulp...

Have you no respect for me?

    Why don’t you tremble in my presence?

I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline

    as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross.

The waves may toss and roar,

    but they can never pass the boundaries I set.

But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.

    They have turned away and abandoned me.

They do not say from the heart,

    ‘Let us live in awe of the Lord our God,

for he gives us rain each spring and fall,

    assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’ ~Jer 5:22-24 NLT