Troubles the Dog

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Bro. Don Wildmon opens this episode of It's My Turn with a story that's hard to forget. It's about a dog named Troubles, a scout dog who served in Vietnam. When his master was wounded and had to be evacuated, Troubles got left behind. But that dog didn't just sit and wait. Over the next three weeks, he made his way back on his own, determined to find the person he loved.

That dog was searching for something specific, and he didn't give up until he found it. The point is simple but worth sitting with: what we're looking for in life tends to be exactly what we find. If you're constantly scanning for faults in the people around you, you'll find plenty. But if you're looking for goodness, for beauty, for something worth celebrating, you'll find that too.

Two people can look at the exact same person and walk away with completely different impressions. One sees flaws and reasons for frustration. The other sees someone worthy of compassion and grace. Same person, same moment, two entirely different realities. This is a challenge to examine what lens we're actually using.

He pulls in a quote from Thoreau Harris: "Look for the beautiful." It's a short phrase, but it carries a lot of weight. The way we think about the people in our lives shapes our relationships more than we usually realize. Choosing to look for the good isn't naive; it's a decision that deepens our connections and, honestly, makes life richer.

He closes by asking a question: What are you going to find in others? The answer, he says, depends entirely on what you're looking for.

Troubles found his way back because he knew what he was searching for. The question worth asking is whether we do too.

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