Beau and the Baby: a true story

Many people, looking at Beau, were scared of him. He was a beautiful dog. When the sun shone on his brown fur, it seemed to sparkle. But Beau was also big and had large white teeth. That made people nervous. Most of all, people were scared of Beau because he was a Doberman.

Beau thought it was a good thing that people were scared of him. When his owner sometimes went for a walk in the middle of the dark night, people would look at Beau. He wouldn't have to bark or growl. All he had to do was stand there, looking them in the eye. When he did this, the people would quickly walk to the other side of the street. It made Beau feel good that he was able to keep the big woman person safe.

Beau also kept the people safe while they slept. One night, Beau heard a car come into the driveway late at night. He could hear two men in it. He started barking and growling at the window. He made sure that his bark was deep and angry. He wanted the woman to know that it wasn't just a deer outside.

The woman woke, and ran to the window, flipping on the spotlight. When the men heard the barking and saw the light come on, they turned the car around and screeched down the long driveway as fast as they could. Beau listened for them but they never came back.

Even though Beau looked and sounded ferocious, he really was gentle. He especially loved children. At night, he would sleep next to the boy's bed and listen to his breathing. And as soon as he heard the boy wake up, Beau would jump up on the bed and kiss the boy's round, red cheeks.

When the boy played in the woods outside their house, Beau was right next to him. Every few minutes he picked up his ears and slowly turned his head, listening for sounds of anything that might hurt the boy. When the boy lost his way, Beau always led him safely home.

Beau also watched out for other children. The boy was excited when his friend came to visit, along with his mom, dad and brand new baby sister. The big people didn't have a playpen to put the baby in, so they put a pink blanket on the beige carpet and laid the tiny baby carefully on the floor.

Beau looked at baby. She was so small. She reached out a pink-clad arm and tried to touch him. Beau turned his head and looked at the boys. They were pretending they were Indians, chasing each other and shooting toy arrows. He loved the boys but he knew that they sometimes weren't all careful when they played.

When the boys started running around the table, they got close to where the baby was. Beau quickly ran and then placed himself in front of the baby, between the baby and the boys. He didn't want the boys accidentally stepping on the baby and hurting her. The boys ran towards the baby. Beau moved to block the boys, pushing them back, away from the small baby girl on the floor. And he didn't move until the boys went downstairs to play.

The Bible tells us that we are to be like Beau. We are supposed to look after our brothers and our sisters - not only our real brothers and sisters but our friends who are part of our Christian family. Like Beau, we are supposed to protect others. We do this by helping them obey God.

Some of the ways we do this are to pray for them, help them when they need something, and be friends.

What are some ways that you can be like Beau?