I promised the kids that when I finished school, we would get a dog. We went Saturday afternoon and picked out a beautiful little lab mix from the animal shelter. Her name is Abby. Now we get to endure the wonderful phase of house training. Joy.
She's pretty smart, so it's been going pretty well. In fact, she has been a quick learner all around. When she wants to be, anyway.
It kinda reminds me of our relationship with God. We hear God when we want to. When a treat is in hand, we come running. When it's time to stop chewing on that thing we shouldn't be chewing on, we seem to be pretty good at pretending we don't hear God say "No!"
But eventually she will learn. Sure, she'll 'forget' every now and then. She'll mess up, slip up, call it what you want. She will disobey. But as puppies grow into dogs, if they are trained right, they will become obedient and faithful to their masters.
As a child of God, do you find yourself becoming more obedient to God? We all 'mess up' (it's called sin). We all misbehave. But as we progress through life, we should find ourselves becoming more and more obedient and faithful to our Father in heaven.
I'm looking forward to the day when Abby hears my voice and obeys me. Are you listening to and obeying the voice of God?
1 comment:
Good analogy. House training a dog is like our own spirital development. The dog will 'go' in the house and then make a mess of it. You hook him up and take him out, waiting for the moment he 'goes' outside. You give up and go back in. The dog goes in the house again. More mess. More cleaning up. But, you love on them and pet them, encourage them to do better.
God is the same way. He cleans up a lot of our messes as we 'house train' spiritually. Man, I know I have 'gone' in the house a lot over the years, but I can always count on him to love me and encourage me.
I do the very best I can to listen and obey. My problem is not obeying, it is my discernment of the message He is telling me. Usually it is after the fact that I realize I messed up!
Post a Comment