Why did we get a dog? Really. Why?

Getting a dog has brought a whole lot of new thoughts out of my four year-old.  Within the first week of the puppy’s arrival Josh said, “Mommy, Daddy is the boss of you.  You are the boss of me and the babies.  But I am the boss of the dog!”  While I’m not totally sure about this chain of command, I could see where he was coming from.  It is amazing to me to see how naturally Josh and his two year-old brother take to being “the boss” of something.  They love to tell the dog “no” and expect total obedience from their furry friend, although he is often oblivious and less than responsive to their attempts at control.

Prior to becoming parents Brian and I owned a Border Collie- a very intelligent dog that lived to please us.  We enjoyed training him to do tricks and took his obedience for granted.  It was a bit of a rude awakening when Josh joined our family at ten months-old and when we told him to come, he expressed some ideas of his own.  As much as we intended to be the boss of him, we had to build a relationship where he learned why it was in his best interest to obey and he trusted us because he had experienced our great love for him.

I see that God’s relationship with us has some similarities.  Is God, in the words of my four year-old, “the boss of me”?  Absolutely!  Do I always obey the first time when He asks me to do something I don’t want to do?  Not always.  But God continues to love me and teaches me daily how it is not only in my best interest to obey, but that I can trust Him because of His great love for me.

And hopefully one of these days our little puppy will learn to obey, too!