Dogfood in a home without a dog

"We saw this great sale on dogfood and bought three bags," the lady said as she handed them to me.
"Do you have a dog?" I asked looking around the house.
"No. But we thought of Hollow Creek Farm and the good work they do. We thought it might help them and we noticed you didn't do a dog food drive like you usually do around this time of year."
"Yeh, I was busy marrying off my son. But Hollow Creek Farm really appreciates this. It is very kind of you."

It wasn't til later, as I was considering that kind older couple's donation that I thought how odd it was that they didn't even have a dog, but noticed the sale on dog food, and bought 3 huge bags for a rescue farm they had never even seen.

Asherel and I had spent the day finishing off the set-up for my book cover. Now that we had a better idea of what is involved after the less than happy day before preparing the pdf file of the book contents, we sailed through the cover construction. That only took us about three hours. Then I got to the last button on my computer screen on our easy book publishing check list.This was not just an e-book, wonderful as it was for me to publish even that. This was a bone fide real physical book, that people could find in any bookstore and spill coffee on.  All I had to hit was "submit".

There is a lot of connotation packed into that one little 6 letter word. It is a much maligned word, raising images of cringing peasants crumpled under cruel landowner's whips. Dictatorial husbands love to quote that verse in the Bible about how wives are to submit to their husbands, and thus required to accede to whatever cockamamie opinion the husband holds whether the wife holds it or not. That word evokes fear of subjugating everything we are to an authority we sometimes don't even know.

I stood poised with my finger over the button, trembling.

If I submit this book and someone sees himself in it and doesn't like the portrayal...will he sue me? Like my son? If I submit this book and the publisher decides it is not worthy and sends it back after the review, will I be able to handle rejection....again? Particularly from a publishing venue that accepts everything as long as it is formatted correctly? If I submit this book and only 2 people buy it, my mom and me, will I ever dare pursue a dream again?

"Should I submit now?" I asked Asherel.
She raised an eyebrow, and looked at me, cocking her head.  The gesture spoke for her: why do you think we just spent two full days sweating over this very specific formatting and coming close to blows if not to this end?

"Let's say a prayer first," I said.
And so we bowed our heads and asked God to take this book where it needed to go, to melt the hearts of the people who ought to read it, and to be a blessing in the hands of those who maybe needed the encouragement of my story to never give up, never give in to despair, never lose hope. Or that's what I meant to pray anyway. In actuality I think I said, "If it be your will, let this book pass the review."
I poised my finger again over the submit button.

And here is the big part of submission that those who try to force submission don't seem to understand. Submission is voluntary. If you force submission, it is not submission. It is slavery. Thesaurus.com defines submit with terms like: accede, acquiesce, yield, surrender......
And the Bible goes a step further. While it does indeed say wives are to submit to their husbands, that is only part of the section. It is preceded by the critical verse- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21). Why is that one so often ignored in the whole Christian submission debate? Just think how wonderful the world would be if every action were dictated by that verse? To submit one to another, one would have to know the other's desires, and one would have to want to please the other, and one would have to understand that by so doing, one was revering Christ Himself! How could anyone object to such a selfless and gentle spirit with which to tackle life? What if everyone thought so givingly of each other that they would buy dogfood for others when they themselves don't even own a dog?

I hit the button that said, "Submit" and watched as my book lifted off magically to its destiny.

As I finished writing this post, I got an email. My book has been accepted and is ready for proofing and publishing.

Job 22:
²¹ “Submit to God and be at peace with him;
   in this way prosperity will come to you.
²² Accept instruction from his mouth
   and lay up his words in your heart.