Lent 2022, Day 18

 

From today’s BiOY commentary:

 “Often, those who know most speak least. When we are talking, we are usually merely repeating what we already know. When we are listening, we may learn something new.”

 

Today's commentary ties the various passages together along the theme of Intimacy, Simplicity, and Obedience, as these traits relate to hearing God.

 With dogs on my mind, of course the word “obedience” jumped out at me. We started our new, more intensive, training yesterday. It was as stressful as I had feared, but once again I was struck at how EASY it looks when the trainer is confident and focused, and the trainees are respectful. When our trainer was in charge, the dogs responded correctly every time. Every. Time. It’s something to behold. When control was handed over to me, things got chaotic. My tone was not correct, I was focused on too many things, and while my dogs clearly love me, it seems that they don’t have a lot of respect for me. Super.

We have the intimacy. They loooove me. They need me. Their whole focus is on me, relative to what I can do for them. But even this is lacking, because when it matters, they don’t seem to trust me enough to listen to me and do what I say.

 Simplicity is harder—I anthropomorphize them, attributing much more complex emotions to them than is realistic, and often “train” them from that place, which, surprise, never works. But really, all I need to ask of them is actually simple: trust me.

 Obedience. Ha.

 My homework this weekend is to get the dogs to listen to me during distractions. Which, hello, is God’s homework with me every day, and often I am a no-show, with predictable results. But it’s all very simple, really, when we remember that we are loved and that our Creator truly wants the best for us. We just need to listen and trust.

 Enjoy this photo of Libby responding to my command to get down. And wish us luck.

 

#lent2022 #bibleononeyear #rescuedogsofinstagram #repentandbelieve

 

 

 

 

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