Black Women Have It Going On

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them.” — Proverbs 26:27

Have you ever noticed how some people use their pets to say what they aren’t brave enough to say to your face?

In my ongoing “fence saga,” things took a turn toward the noisy. After realizing the neighbor’s math was a little too “creative”—conveniently leaving me with the larger bill—I stood my ground. I reminded him that the fence was actually his financial obligation, built before my home was even finished.

He didn’t take the news well. He went straight to his wife, and suddenly, the backyard atmosphere changed.

The next thing I knew, their dog was being “deployed.” Every time I stepped into my sanctuary, the dog was let out to bark—non-stop. One afternoon, I was hosting a meeting with a contractor, and that dog barked for two straight hours without catching a breath. It was a clear message: If you won’t pay for the fence, you’ll pay with your peace.

But here’s the thing about “weaponizing” a behavior: you can’t always control where the weapon points.

When their air conditioning went out and they had to open their windows, they realized that a dog trained to bark at everything doesn’t stop just because the “target” is out of sight. Soon, we could hear that same dog barking for hours inside their own home. They had given the dog permission to be a nuisance, and now that nuisance was living in their living room.

Between the internal noise and a well-deserved report to the authorities, the “weaponized wag” has finally quieted down. It turns out, when you try to ruin someone else’s garden, you usually end up trashing your own house.

Connecting the Dots:
This is the Law of the Harvest in action. When people use passive-aggressive tactics—like using a pet to annoy a neighbor—they are essentially training “chaos” to live in their environment. They thought they were punishing me, but they were actually devaluing their own peace of mind. Passive-aggression is a boomerang; it always finds its way back to the person who threw it.

The Takeaway:
You cannot “grant permission” for bad behavior to bother others without that same behavior eventually bothering you. Protect your peace, stay consistent with your boundaries, and let the noise eventually “come home to roost.”

Daily Prayer:
Lord, thank You for being my shield when others try to disrupt my peace. Help me to remain calm and steady even when the “noise” around me gets loud. I pray for my neighbors—that they would realize that a heart set on retaliation only hurts themselves. Keep my sanctuary quiet and my heart focused on You. Amen.