Lessons From the Dog

We have a three year old Puggle named Rusty.  He is adorable but ornery.  Rusty is smart yet hard headed as can possibly be.  The first few weeks we had him we had to push a table up to the gate each night or he would escape.  We finally got a kennel to hold him in at night and he would jump and wiggle so much that the kennel would end up three feet from where we put it.  He seems to understand everything we say and what is going on around him.  Give him a toy and he knows exactly where to hide it from the other dogs.  He also knows where the other dogs hide their toys and he sneaks around to get them.  Yes, Rusty is ornery.

Rusty knows when he has done something wrong.  He comes to me with his ears down, tail between his legs and sad eyes.  He knows he has made mommy mad.  But Rusty also knows that I still love him.  He understands that when he gets into the trash he will be punished and have to go outside.  As a matter of fact, after getting into the trash, he goes and waits by the door because he knows his fate.

While punishing Rusty one day, I realized we are just like him.  We do things wrong.  We get a bad attitude or have a bad thought.  We do things we know we shouldn't do.  But we can be confident that God still loves us.  He will still be with us.  Rusty can get in the trash or bark all day, but I will never kick him out of our family.  He knows he did wrong and he snuggles up to us as to say sorry.  When we do wrong, we repent and God forgives us.

"For as high as the Heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far He has removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:11-12

Does this mean we can keep on purposely sinning?  No.  We need to do our best to keep away from sin and temptation.  But we are not perfect and God knows that.  So in those times we do mess us we can be confident that if we ask God to forgive us, He will.

Today, let's praise God for His forgiveness and unending love!

Sweet Blessings~