Wipe your paws, please

The Mighty Wonder Buck has a morning routine.  Actually, it’s based on my routine, which has to do with being very much a morning person.  Generally, I’m up at around daybreak or shortly thereafter, and that’s when I’m OFF work.  During the work week, it’s dark, and sometimes the birds aren’t even singing yet, unless it’s an owl, which is pretty cool in itself.

I’ll head outside for pot of tea on the patio, while Buckley noses around and sniffs and, well, does other things dogs need to do first thing in the morning. 

Except when it’s raining.  Then he’s on his own for a quick in-and-outer to do his business, which can be fairly substantial for a 60-pound pup. Because of his long hair and his feathered feet, he tends to track in LOTS of mud.   The mud doesn’t seem to bother him much; it’s just not within his canine concepts that his master prefers a clean kitchen floor. 

So I’m teaching him to “wipe his feet” by putting a towel on the floor just beyond the door mat, and making him go just that far, “sit”, and come back to the mat and “sit”, and repeat several times.  One particular morning he seemed to have a bit of confused resignation in his face. 

“Am I in trouble?”

“Why is she doing this?”

“Again?”

“This is weird.”

Of course, at the end of the routine he gets his reward—a hard brown doggie biscuit. He’ll do just about anything for a hard brown biscuit.  (Very easy to please…)

Interestingly, he seems pretty content to learn new tricks or patiently wait for his turn to do things that he likes, like playing catch or swimming in the lake; I guess he trusts us enough to know that we’re taking care of him, he’ll get fed at the right time and he’ll get to play at the right time.  So if I train him to do something that he doesn’t understand the need for, he’s okay with that.

(And we call them dumb animals….)

So why should I whine when God’s wanting to me do something I don’t want to do?

“Is He mad at me?”

“Why is He allowing this to happen?”

“Again??”

“This seems weird.”

Often it’s just too painful for our brains to try to understand what the heck is going on. Many times clarity or explanation are  luxuries we cannot afford, at least not at the expense of obedience, because… 

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”

As we continue to faithfully learn from our Master, even if it seems redundant, meaningless, and (dare I say it?) b-o-r-i-n-g, we too will receive a reward.

And it will be a bit more than a hard brown biscuit.

 

Isaiah 55:8  Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.