Life Lessons from a Doberman

By Darren Osburn

What does a 100-pound doberman have to do with worship, faithfulness, trusting God, and other spiritual truths? In this humorous and insightful book, Darren Osburn shares what he’s learned about a relationship with God from unexpectedly living with a large dog.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312745155

Book preview

Life Lessons from a Doberman

by Darren Osburn

Copyright © 2023 Darren Osburn

Published by Darren Osburn

ISBN 978-1-312-74515-5

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version, © 1975, Thomas Nelson.

Several references are also made throughout the book to Strong’s Concordance:

Strong J. (1890;1986). Strong's exhaustive concordance of the Bible. Abingdon Press.

Acknowledgements

Writing a book is a big undertaking and more goes into it than just the writing part. 

The first person I must profusely thank is my wife, Shelley. She has put up with me, encouraged me, and been there for me through all our ministry and beyond. Love you so much hon! Thank you for always being by my side! 

To my kids and their spouses and now grandchildren: You make your mom and my lives fuller and bless us so much. Much Love!

My parents Rich and Danna Osburn have been an encouragement to me since birth. So much of who I am today is because of the example I lived with growing up and have witnessed as an adult. They are examples of faith, consistency, and generosity to so many people besides me. 

Dr. Mark Barclay has been a father in the faith to me for the last 27 years at the time of this writing. Thank you for taking the time to invest in me years ago and being a friend, mentor, father, and pastor to me. Your influence on my life is felt by many.

To all the ministers I quoted or didn’t quote, but still influenced this book: Dr. Mark Barclay, Bill and Linda McRay, Michael Massa, Keith Moore, Gerald Brooks, Terry and Renee Mize, Keith Moore, Tony Cooke, Alan Crider, and Willie George. Thank you for your impact on my life through the years.

A big thank you to Greer and Crystal Trice. Crystal, for all the time spent editing this book and walking me through the publishing process. Most importantly, by keeping the words sounding like me. To her husband Greer for encouraging me and being gracious so that Crystal could help me with this project.

The photos included are by Ronda Szlavich and LaRae’s Images (laraesimages.com) and the cover photo was taken by my daughter Tara Snyder.

To Amy Schroeder: Thank you for taking time to read the partially edited manuscript and giving me great feedback on it.

To the Overflow Church Family: you are the best! It is such a blessing being a pastor to such hungry and faithful people. Also, thank you for the kind comments of anticipation for the publishing of my first book.

Introduction

In November of 2013, my son informed me after church that he and a friend were going to Washington to pick up something he had purchased. What I did not know was that he had conspired with his grandma (my mother) to buy a Doberman puppy. Imagine my surprise when he walked in around 9:30 that evening with a puppy who had his ears taped and introduced me to Salem. My sarcastic statement was Great, you got me a dog! He assured me that he would take care of him, and Salem was his dog. Fast forward a few years, he is now married, has a new house, he and our daughter-in-law are parents, and guess who has a Doberman?

My wife Shelley occasionally will give me a hard time for telling the previous story. She reminds me that I love Salem and that I missed him when he did not live with us. She is correct, as I have always enjoyed dogs and would be considered a dog lover. I also know from growing up with animals that they require time, patience, money, and attention, which is why I had not bought one. Especially a large dog.

Anyway, here I am with a dog that I did not buy for myself, and he requires my time and attention daily. What I also did not expect during my walks with Salem was that I would have the Lord deal with me about life and leadership.

In the pages that follow, there are a handful of lessons the Lord brought up in my heart while walking and spending time with Salem. Walking Salem also gave me extra time to pray. What lies ahead is not an attempt to be profound or extremely deep. However, I do feel that there are life lessons that can help us grow with a smile on our face, even when the subject is uncomfortable.

An interesting fact I learned about Dobermans is they have been bred to be pack leaders. They will end up leading, or thinking they are the leader, of any group they are consistently with. As an owner, you must make sure they know that you are the boss, or they will be running you. This understanding created some insights as we spent time together through the years, causing some of my life lessons to be leadership lessons as well. I believe this will help if you are in leadership or ministry, work in business or the church, or even if you have no idea why you picked this book up.

Chapter 1: Excitement

Weeping may endure for a night,

but joy comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5

I do not know if every Doberman is like Salem, but I am starting to think they are. I have watched enough YouTube videos since we have had him to see the breed similarities. Salem has slept in a kennel in our garage since we have had him. Every morning when we go to take him out, he is so excited to see us. He tries to hug whoever goes out to see him first, by wrapping his body around your legs. He just overflows with excitement because you are with him.

He has always been energetic, but I never had this thought come to me till he was around five years old. We were walking down the street when I felt a nudge in my heart from the Lord. The still small voice said to me Notice how excited he is to start each day?

That may not sound like much to you, but I am not a morning person. My day usually does not begin till my second cup of coffee has been consumed. I was reminded that how we start the day does have an impact on what we accomplish that day.

I noticed that as we went for a walk, he would be excited to go see things that were insignificant to me. He would look for squirrels and birds along the way. He would look carefully at a condo unit’s park that was down the street from our house. He would look for each house that had a dog inside. (Somehow all dogs know this.) You could tell how excited he was by his nub wagging. (He has a cropped tail that was done before my son bought him.) You could tell how excited he was by