My Dumb Dogs Get It

* This is an article I wrote several years ago for a christian women's magazine or maybe for a women's group I was leading.... I was reviewing some of my previous articles and thought this one was at least worth sticking out there to remind ME what I need reminding most!

Deuteronomy 5:32-33
So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

2 Chronicles 34, also 2 Kings 22 – 23 (read the whole chapters for extra insight)
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.

Proverbs 4:25 – 27
Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.
Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.



Today my dogs inspired me. They didn’t stand up and speak or read from the newspaper or even save a baby from a burning house – they just did what they’re supposed to do – what God intended.

I was busily reading an online devotion – trying to make the most of the words in the quickest amount of time so that I can move on to the next task. My dumb dogs began scratching at the back door demanding to be let out, and then even whining. This annoyed me – I thought about responding, just to get them to shut up, but then I reminded myself that God’s Word is far more important than the leanings and desires of my dumb dogs. After all, they really are pretty dumb. Elmo loves to stand directly under my feet and then, when I step on him, he shrieks and looks at me with such pitiful eyes. Barnabas is the big doofus. He runs into things. He barks at the wind. He’s so afraid of people walking that when he see you moving towards him (because he always decides to lay down across the only entrance to a room) he gets so afraid that the can’t decide which way to move and usually ends up getting stepped on.

Well, these dumb dogs really wanted out today – they just couldn’t be swayed to wait until I finished my devotion, so I got up and walked over to the door. Together, these dogs who often will run in circles for no good reason, made a straight B-line for the back corner of the fence. They were completely intent on catching whatever it was that had invaded their yard. They weren’t distracted by the birds (usually the prey of choice) nor by the dog next door (their choir partner). They had a job to do. It’s not one that they chose – they don’t need the food that critter would have provided, they’re already over-fed. They’re just programmed to respond – God made them that way. A critter invades, they go after it – no questions, no distractions, you just can’t stop them.

I believe that if I approached life this way, I’d be a lot closer to the person God intended me to be. I know that, like Barnabas and Elmo, He has programmed me for a purpose. If I just waited for God to speak and then moved like lightening – unswerving – toward the goal He has set for me, I can’t imagine what I could accomplish for the Kingdom. It’s not that I don’t know what God wants from me. Once I stop thinking and over-analyzing everything (like my dumb dogs) I usually hear loud and clear. But, all too often, I get distracted by the birds and choir partners of life…