The LORD Looketh on the Heart

Sunday School today was kinda rough for me. My teacher brought up how he had trained his dog to obey. Well, this past Tuesday we laid my best friend, Foxy, to rest.

Rest in peace, my faithful friend. I will miss you.

The good Lord had answered my prayer that He take her rather than let her suffer from the heartworms that had made her so sick, but it was heartbreaking for me to lose my friend.

The lesson was that at first, he had to put a choke collar on his dog and teach it to heel. Then eventually, he could let it off the chain and just say the word heel and the dog would mind. Through obedience came freedom.

All I could think about was how Foxy didn’t apply to that idea. She was a rescue dog and had been abused as a puppy. When we first got her, she would shriek if she thought someone was going to touch her. I would coax her and talk sweetly to her until she learned to trust me. Only by having love for her and understanding what she had been through did I get anywhere with her.

It was love and patience and understanding that changed her into my best friend. She didn’t do things for me out of fear of being punished, but because she loved me so much, she wanted to please me. She would freak out if a chain were put on her. I assume that went back to her abuse, but it wasn’t something we could do to her. Granted, she was no show dog, hunting dog, or herd dog. She didn’t win any ribbons or trophies for me to show off to my friends, equating her worth. She just simply loved me.

She always wanted to be by my side because she loved me. If I sat down outside anywhere, she was by my side. If I hadn’t noticed she was beside me, she would daintily place her little foot on me as if to say, “Mom, I am here, please love me.”

If I were in the house sitting somewhere, oftentimes she was beneath me under the house… whichever room I was in, she was under. I suppose she could hear my voice to know where I was.

When I left in the car and came home, she met me at the gate, yipping with glee that I was home, to let me know she missed me. She nipped playfully at my fingertips to say “hello”. You see, she wasn’t trained to obey; she was shown how to love, and through that love for me, she was my friend, not a servant. Granted, she obeyed the rules not to go out in the road or to do things that were not approved of, like chasing the cats, but all I had to do was scold her in a firm tone. She hated to disappoint me; she would drop her head and tuck her tail and come to me as if to say, “I am sorry, Mom, forgive me.”

You see, there was a difference in the way my dog was obedient and how my teacher’s dog was obedient. I am not saying what he said was wrong; I am only saying there are different ways to teach and different learning styles depending on the background and history of the one being taught.

I thank God that (1 Samuel 16:7) … the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. I also thank God that He knows exactly what we need to be where we need to be in Him!

~Becky~