My Chuck

My childhood dream was to have a pet duck! So finally I was able to achieve that dream and ended up with four Pekin Ducks. A very long and sad story later, three of them died and I was left with one last sad and lonely girl. I decided to name her Reba, after Reba Macintires song, “Im a Survivor.” I did the only logical thing I could do for this lonely little bird, I made her move into the chicken coop! Some people may not know this but a duck and chicken are VERY different birds. Let me explain…
A duck has webbed feet, a chicken does not.
My duck is large and white, my chickens are not.
A duck loves being sprayed with a hose, a chicken runs away.
Chickens can fly a little, my duck can’t.
My duck loves to swim, eats more than my dog, quacks, and cant drink enough water.
Chickens can fly a little bit, take dirt baths, cluck, chase you, and tear up the ground looking for insects to eat.
  As you can see chickens and ducks are very different animals! Just about the only thing they have in common is they both have feathers. Not even the beaks on these birds are the same. The first week the birds lived together was rough, Reba didn’t really fit in. On cold nights all the chickens would huddle together in the nesting box and Reba would lay on the floor of the coop all by herself. After about two weeks since the integration, I walked outside and was shocked when I saw Reba snuggling up with three other chickens! My family and I were excited when we saw the chickens accepting her, and when we actually saw them all getting along. Everything was great!
  But I now am noticing little differences in Reba the duck. She wont swim in the pond anymore, and all the sudden she hates the hose. Now, Reba actually runs away when the hose turns on just like the other chickens. Before the integration, Reba would run up to the hose and flap her wings, now she cant run away fast enough. My cute ducky now eats dirt because she doesn’t get that the chickens aren’t eating dirt but just the bugs inside.  All these changes in her, but why? Bad company corrupts good character.
  If you hang out with the same person enough you start to become like them. When the first disciples came to Jesus they were not perfect! In fact I picture some un-groomed men, then were used to drinking and cursing. Now maybe Im wrong but thats just the way my mind pictures it. But after they hung out with Jesus they became preachers of the Gospel themselves! Transformed. I remember as a little kid, I hung out with this one girl a lot! When I would come home from a sleep over I found myself getting in trouble and sometimes sent to my room. My Mom used to tell me I was acting just like her and that I needed to hang out with some other people.
  We can have the best intentions, we can be having our devotions daily and walking with the Lord faithfully! But, if we aren’t having balance in our life, and we find the only people we are spending our time with are our “chicken” friends, our faith will start slipping. Its important to hang out with the chickens, as long as we are making an impact on them instead of us picking up their “dirt eating habits”. As ducks we need to spend our time with other quacking people. That way we have accountability partners, people to help keep our feet on the ground.
My duck has now become a “Chuck.” (Chicken+Duck=Chuck) Reba doesn’t really know what she is. She is slipping. We need to surround ourselves with a good Christian support system so we can better impact the chickens of the world.Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33

Alyssa Munsie

https://www.epicmissions.org