RECENTLY WE BOUGHT A NEW PUPPY. I named her Tina. Tina’s a terrier mix. She’s beautiful of course! Her tail is unlike a pure terrier pup; its fur is feathery and the tail curves like one huge question mark! Interesting to note: her tail wags to the left and our fawn pug’s tail, Rocky, wags to the right. God is so creative. Creation is created by the Creator!

Selah.

Puppies are a whole lot of work, loving work. You do have to be patient and attentive to their needs. Tina came to us at about five months old. A very sweet lady and her young daughter were fostering Tina, her daddy and others dogs as well. Now, that’s a lot of work!

We have learned that Tina and her daddy, Bertie, were shot at. They came from the South. I hated hearing this, but my husband and I did notice at times she seemed a little nervous we might hurt her. We got her later than our other puppies, quite a bit later. When you get the youngest puppies you can, it’s less likely they’ve had trauma from strangers or bad situations (especially when you purchase an expensive purebred like our pugs: we’ve had seven.) When Riley, our only black pug, passed at a good age, of course, Rocky was lonely; so lonely that nearly every night afterwards he would cry early, early in the morning and needed to be comforted. He was. And now he will ask for help to rescue him from Tina’s puppy activities: chewing, chewing, chewing on him: also, to mention, chasing him and taking away a toy he is playing with…

Yes, Tina is a lot of work. Every puppy I’ve ever had has been. Riley used to try to escape puppy Rocky by going between the bathroom wall and the toilet. Now Rocky knows what that feels like.

I’ve always been conscious of watching what my puppies chew on and what they find. Choking is one of my main concerns and I do an excellent job keeping Tina safe. Another is getting outside on her own or running to our upper room. There I want to be certain she doesn’t run so fast that she accidentally flies over the landing and thereby missing too many steps. Agile as Tina is I guard her highly energetic running times. I have to. I need to.

Yes, puppies are great! Yes, puppies are a lot of work; truly a labor of love. I get angry with people who walk their dogs too long in severe weather, be it hot or cold. I hate to see a dog kept outside too long in the daytime and out for the whole night. And I find it unloving to scold a baby when she just wants to come inside because she’s lonely, cold, hot, scared! It burns me…

In return of the hard / fun work you put into puppy, a puppy gives you love to the nines… I always say, “You have to do a whole lot of abuse to a dog before they every start being constantly afraid of you or of attacking you in what they believe is self-defense.”

Yes, a puppy playpen would not be a bad thing! At Tina’s point in life right now I cannot leave her in most rooms alone because:

• she has chewed on my blow dryer cord (unplugged)
• she has gotten into my yarn like a cat
• Tina for some reason loves my little scissors I used to leave on my end table when I crochet
• like all my puppies, Tina loves facial tissue and napkins to chew and I have to keep them out of her mouth reach
• she has run upstairs to play with Pewter, our Russian Blue cat
• she loves to take my straw out of my glass
• Tina has the talent and ability to agilely get on top my dining table!
• her easy-to-rip-to-pieces doggie toys concern me greatly when she’s trying to swallow the fillings
• And the list goes on

 

Again, puppies are a lot of work

BUT:
they love they give you is a great, very great, asset to your life! Healthy love helps your health…

Selah.

(Now think of healthy and unhealthy relationships:)

 

Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 

2 Corinthians 6:14-15
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

 

satan may sometimes seem like a puppy… BUT: He gives pretend love: “Go, head! It’s no big deal! It won’t hurt you! It’s so fun!”

Biblically speaking he says: “All this I will give you IF you bow down and worship me!”

 

Matthew 4:1-9
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights ,he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

 

Yes, like a puppy you don’t want to turn you back on satan. But in his case it’s because he wants to slaughter, destroy and steal!  Tina and puppies like her only want to play, eat, sleep, drink, run outside, AND CUDDLE!

Now let’s compare light with that darkness, the enemy of your soul and mind: puppies are a lot like God. I’ve contemplated many, many times how many godly qualities puppies and dogs have in common with God.

PUPPIES WANT TO

• receive love back
• love to love you, kiss you, welcome you home!
• receive your family members who no longer live with you with great joy and love

 

PUPPIES

• miss you when you’re gone
• never demand you earn their love
• forgive you easily

 Our Father in Heaven wants fellowship! Puppies want it, cry for it, demand it! And you’re smart enough to cherish your puppy it so hurts your heart when you are separated by death. Puppies are a role model of God’s unconditional, patient and absolutely adoring love.

When you think of God, think puppy!

 

SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS TO THIS PUPPY TAIL…

 

Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God,keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

 

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

1 John 4:9-11
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

 

Isaiah 11:6-9
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

 

Psalm 36:6
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.

 

Revelation 19:11
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.