Just obey me.
I joke that my new puppy thinks his name is “Bosco, ‘No’.” For the first five weeks in my house, that’s about the only words he heard.  Those, and of course the other ones that I utter each time he defiantly disobeys me. I lean over him, look into those adorable eyes, and while trying to get my message across (without laughing) blurt out,  “I could squish you like a bug!” Doesn’t he know I could wipe him off the face of this planet in one swoop?
Why not just obey me and avoid any repercussions let alone the consequences? At times, I get so frustrated. If I could only speak doggie and get through to him…But alas, I can’t.
We’re turning a corner of late. I’m finally able to have some cuddle time where he doesn’t bite and gnaw on me 24/7. I’m actually experiencing moments of peace (when I’m not chasing him down the hall with yet another shoe). In those new quiet minutes, I have begun to think, I sure hope God looks at me that way—when I am being nothing short of a brat. I hope He says, “But she’s so dadgum sweet and cute.”
I wonder if He’s able to adore me when I continue to miss the point, or when I snap back at Him each time I don’t get my way? Does He still look at me lovingly when I do the same things, over and over again? Does He get exasperated having to repeatedly remind me, “Stop it. Don’t do that!”
Though He could truly “squish me like a bug” (and in one breath blow me into eternity)…I hope in those moments He looks at me the way I look at my new puppy.
When I look at Bosco, I see a sweet, innocent creature, that just doesn’t quite yet get it. He tries—he really does. I can see it in his eyes. He simply can’t help himself. He wants to be good, but that intense puppy instinct overrides my rules and reprimands that ask him to go against his nature and adjust. And alas, he does the exact opposite of what I ask or want.
Being good isn’t easy. Obeying when we just don’t understand why we should (or when it doesn’t make sense to us) is tough. But like Bosco, we don’t speak God’s language. And too, we really don’t know much about this immense and complex world out there that we live in—and we never fully will. That’s why God asks us to not question—just simply obey.
I’m grateful to know The Lord understands that I just don’t get it. But I try…I really do. Maybe someday I will grow up, and behave, and just rest peacefully on the porch of life and not fight for my own way all the time. Wishful thinking. Who knows. We’ll see.
Just my thoughts,
S.
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Deuteronomy 30:15-16New Living Translation (NLT)
15 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. 16 For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.