Daily
Devotional

We have a Golden Retriever named Annie. She weighs over seventy-five pounds and is very lovable, but she also has a mind of her own, which is why we paid for her to go through a four-week obedience training program. In addition to learning basic obedience, this type of schooling involves developing friendship, trust, and love. After Annie arrived home, I could see some good changes had come from the training. For one thing, there were no new holes dug in the backyard!  

One evening, something especially eventful happened. My husband and I were sitting in the front room with a bowl of popcorn between us, and Annie was sitting close by. Annie loves popcorn and is allowed to have some—as long as I can control how much she eats. Usually, I lay a paper towel on my lap and put a pile of popcorn on it to munch from, and then toss Annie bites every so often. At one point, I had refilled the stash on my lap and then got distracted. When I looked back, I saw Annie helping herself to my pile! My unhappy reaction told her she had goofed, but then she surprised me with her response—she tried to make it right by spitting out what she had just taken. Of course, at that point I almost would have preferred that she had just eaten the popcorn, but I was glad to see that she had a repentant attitude. Even though she had no business getting into the forbidden pile of munchies, I appreciated her effort to undo her wrong.

Our walk with the Lord is also a school in obedience. If we let Him, He wants to build a close friendship with us, teaching us to trust Him and helping us to obey when He requests something from us. We will not do everything right the first time, but having the right attitude about our mistakes will keep us in God’s favor. If we make a mistake, we need to tell the Lord we are sorry, do our best to repair the situation, and then determine to do it the right way next time. Even when our actions are not perfect, God wants to see that our intentions are still purely to please Him.

God shares the good things of life with us daily. We want to be quick to listen and do things His way. There are more blessings ahead if we stick close by Him and let Him lead the way.