I realized that when it comes to how we should act toward God, and toward the other people in our lives, us humans could learn a thing or two from the Humble dog.
Hello Readers, hope all’s well.
I know it’s been a long time, a few months actually, since I last posted. For that I’m sorry, although that was the way it had to be. I wasn’t in a situation to be able to make these posts, not even one post a week. I’ve been trying recently to get back to my writing. My progress in getting back to writing has been pretty slow, which is frustrating. But, I’ll come back little by little.
I don’t know if “coming back” means I’ll be posting as much as I used to on this blog, though. We’ll see, moving forward. The thing is, I have many other writing projects that also take up my writing time. And some of those projects will never be posted on this blog. As for the blog, well, I guess I would say that I will post what I can, when I can moving forward.
Today it’s time for another Natural Wisdom post. This is a series where I write about some of the lessons God has taught me, through nature. God teaches us so much through nature if we’re willing to watch and listen to see and hear the Wisdom. And today’s post was inspired by the friendship of my dogs. Dogs are my favorite of God’s animals.
I have four dogs, who are a great source of unconditional love and friendship in my life. One day not long ago I was praying, and I thanked God for my four precious and irreplaceable friends. Each one was a stray that I found in the streets, and each one I only found because I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Well, I’ve heard that there are no coincidences when you follow God. So I see each one of my dogs as a gift from God, a friend to travel with me on my journey so I won’t be alone.
I thanked God for my friends, and I also praised God for designing and creating my four-legged friends. I thought about how they’re a complex mammal like us, but they’re also capable of feeling deep emotions. Their emotional capacity is what enables them to bond with us humans. And when I thought about that, I realized that when it comes to how we should act toward God, and toward the other people in our lives, us humans could learn a thing or two from the Humble dog.
So let’s think about that for a moment. What could “man’s best friend,” the dog, have to teach us??
The Virtues of a Dog
These are the admirable characteristics of a good dog that I could think of. Humans might do well to emulate these traits when it comes to our relationship with God.
Loyalty
Dogs are incredibly loyal creatures. They bond with one owner (or family) and stay with them, following them until one or the other passes away. As long as a dog’s owner isn’t abusive, 9/10 dogs will stick around*. (*That last one out of ten dogs might run off for other reasons, like chasing a small animal or something and getting distracted on an adventure. These things do happen with dogs sometimes.)
We should be as loyal toward God as our dogs are loyal toward us. We should never follow idols and other gods (small ‘g’), instead sticking to God (big ‘G’) and only God until the end. Idols and false gods include things like fame, worldly wealth, worldly respect, and more. It’s easy to offend the LORD by bowing down and worshiping money or material goods. We need to remember who our true God is, and be loyal to Him with all our devotion and worship. Same as how our dogs never forget who their owners are, and don’t seek after other owners.
Obedience
Dogs listen to their owner, and 9/10 times will obey**. If they’ve been trained well, when the owner says ‘sit’ the dog will sit.
**Yes I know some breeds are smarter than others, and some dogs don’t obey because they don’t understand. And sometimes a dog will willfully disobey; I know that too. But in general, dogs are very obedient to their owner.
We should be obedient to God like dogs are obedient to us. When God tells us to do something, or much more likely, when God tells us to STOP doing something, we need to obey and act right away.
Forgiveness
This one has more to do with how we treat others than how we treat God.
Dogs are very Forgiving; they Forgive instantly. Sometimes I’ve stepped on their feet in the dark, or other things like that (all by accident). The dogs yelp in pain—it hurts them. And yet, when I pet them and say sorry, it’s not even two seconds later that they’re wagging their tails and happy. They Forgive, and they Forgive so quickly.
We can’t Forgive as fast as the dogs can, because Forgiveness is a process. In fact Forgiveness is a process of grieving. That means before we can Forgive we need to experience the sadness and anger caused by the wound we need to Forgive. For more on that check out The Christian Book Corner #15: Forgiving what You’ll NEVER Forget. It’s a book review of a Christian book all about Forgiveness.
Maybe we can’t Forgive as easy as dogs can Forgive. But we must still try our best to be as Forgiving as we can. And this means being more like a loyal, happy dog, who is willing to so easily overlook hurts and injuries. If we can be more like dogs on this point, our relationships will be better and our lives will have more joy. And on that note ….
Joy
Dogs are happy. It doesn’t take much to make them happy. They need play, exercise, and stimulation, but even so, they don’t need too much to be happy. If only we could all be happy, like dogs are happy … right??
Well, it’s true that dogs don’t have the same high-level concerns as humans, but …. Joy is one of the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). If we’ve got the Holy Spirit in us, we will have joy in God. He will be our source of strength, peace, energy … and true, lasting satisfaction and happiness.
(22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, […]
Galatians 5:22 (CEB)
Some Christians, myself definitely included, struggle with this. Many Christians are so unhappy. Well, I’m not unhappy every day, but I definitely struggle with that sometimes. Maybe we should be more like dogs, when it comes to joy?? Maybe we should find joy in the most minor little things; let go of other concerns and simply enjoy God. To have joy in God, knowing that if we have God we have it all. What more do we need to be happy??
(It’s a rhetorical question, the answer is ‘nothing.’)
Are We Truly “Better??”
We humans view ourselves above dogs and all other animals by default. After all, they can’t work, drive cars, create inventions, and so on and so forth. We’re so advanced. Far superior to any lowly four-legged animal like a dog, right??
Right??
Today I ask you, are we humans really “better” than dogs in every way?? Are we superior by default??
What if these Humble and loving creatures actually epitomize Blessed Virtues we should imitate??
When it comes to how we should act toward God, and toward the other people in our life, maybe we should be more like the Humble, loyal, loving dog.
Just something to think about, Readers.
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Until next time, be strong and do good!!
Your new best friend in Christ,
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