Training dogs and children

“Lord, You light my lamp; 

my God illuminates my darkness.”

Psalms 18:28

The Father approaches...

When I had a dog, his name was Linus, and he wasn't fully potty-trained.  But he knew that peeing in the house was bad because when he did it I would get visibly upset and he could sense that someone wasn't "happy."  It took him a while to connect his peeing with my unhappiness, but even after he kind of got the clue, (because when he would pee he would slink away in guilt) he would then use that against me by peeing all around the house when I left him home alone.  I felt like this was him telling me off or reacting to my absence in a way that he knew would get my attention once I got home.  He knew hat when I approached him after being out all day, I would be exasperated with him.  I wanted to come home and feed him and cuddle him and play with him, but this got difficult to do when I had my hands full of cleaning up after his dirty business.  I would clean it up and be tired.  I wished he could have been patient--or peed on the doggie pads so that when I got home the house would be clean and we could play.  But he probably doesn't think deeply as I do about the matter.  Animals are reactionary, not responsible.  They do from what they feel--impulsively--until they either give up or get a clue.  Both of those resolutions, however, arrive by a process called training.  

I know this process because it's what God puts me through to expose my animalistic instincts.  I react to how I feel when God "leaves" and basically doesn't give me what I feel like.  If I want passion I expect Him to deliver, if excitement then He better give it, if love and security then it couldn't come sooner.  I want, and I want it NOW.  Obviously I don't always get what I want when I want it because I'm not the Master.  So, in my training when I have been "left home alone" then when God shows up He cleans up my mess.  I can shirk away in shame or I can use each experience to bring me closer to clarity.  The clarity that He is master and I'm His beloved.  The clarity that what He wants is not only good but it's also what will bring me greater joy.  If I can endure past my feelings of wanting what I want all the time--for the sake of trusting what He wants as better and even perfect for me--then I will begin to get a clue.  

It's like training a dog.  

The difference between training a dog and training a child is one thing:  the child benefits way more if they get it.  Or at least they should in a psychologically healthy household, haha. 

But both go through it.  Because the Master trains for different purposes.  Parents train dogs to be good pets, but they train children to have a good life beyond the years of living under their roof.  

Likewise, how much more does our Heavenly Father know what He's doing when He approaches us?  Get it out of your heads that He will leave because a real father never leaves a child--a Good Father never stops loving His child.  This isn't about good behavior and bad behavior.  This is about being given a way to flourish.  Instead consider His ways as training for you to understand.  We are in His household, not the other way around.  We come from sin and death, but He adopts us into His home of life and eternity.  

So He approaches us today. 

We might feel like slinking away like Linus after he peed all over the house, or we could maybe get a clue about how impulsive we are when we don't get our way.  So that, the next time around we can hold off on venting our feelings in disastrous ways and wait for God to come home and comfort us with His presence.  

Jmegrey