Beauty in the simple perspective of a canine.

Consider my little dog Riley. He’s a little rat terrier. A feisty and very energetic little creature. He is lovable and needy.

I have been teaching him the concept of action/reaction. Bad behavior warrants punishment. Good behavior, well, it opens several doors He is now trained to stay on the carpet area, which rests on the cusp of the dinning and kitchen area. Though the scents coming from the kitchen cause him to stumble and disobey the boundaries set forth he knows what obedience means. But he’s a dog! You say, oh trust me he knows.

His master will reward him sometimes when he remains in the carpet area without coming into the kitchen and getting underfoot. There are other times he does not receive any approval because that’s expected behavior. Other times he will get punished if he does not obey what is expected of him.

All he knows with that specific rule is that he is expected to obey. His master may say “well done” and reward him in the form of a treat. Other times his master may not even acknowledge his obedience because he expects him to obey (we are still talking about Riley- the dog- here). When he is not obedient well he knows that something is coming.

Hope you guys are still with me here.

The other day I came home and found that he had torn through a package of cookies and left the wrapper everywhere in the living room. He knew he had done something wrong not because his master acknowledged it but because he knew!

His ears were folded behind the back of his neck and his tail tucked between his legs indicated that he was ashamed of his wrongdoing. But here’s the part I love. He came crawling to the master begging to be held. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to avoid punishment or receive grace (probably both).  I knelt down and sternly whispered “Nooooooo”. All I had to do next was point down the hall. He knew that for the next 30 minutes his tiny cage would be his quarters where he would think about the wrong committed. This dog is quite the feeler man. He doesn’t need spankings; in fact physical discipline has proven to incite him to be more violent- who knows, short man complex.

You may roll your eyes and think it would be even silly to consider that little canine is capable of knowing right from wrong or having a conscience, and you may be right.

I don’t know if he has any type of what we would call “feeling” but he does know his master’s voice and his master touch. He wants to please his master. He wants to be in his favor. It kills him to hurt his master or for his master to be mad at him.

I don’t know, I guess I just like the little lesson here. Are we obedient to our master? Do we want to please him and not be ashamed to come to him? Do we turn to him when we mess up? Do we want to make him smile? Can our master love us more than he already does?

One of those little observations where I got to sit back and thank Our Father for setting standards. Expecting us to obey them. Loving us in spite of our failures yet at the same time being just when we do disobey.

Praise him for his goodness. Even when he refines you in His refiner’s fire.