She lied.
Big lie.
The going to hell kinda lie.
Abbi is cute, but dumb as mud. She doesn't cuddle and listening is her least famous attribute. Let's just say, what she lacks in smarts, she makes up in personality.
Since I got Abbi 2 years ago, she has eaten a pair of slippers, a pair of really nice dress shoes, 3 flip-flops, many toilet rolls, paper, a duvet cover, about 3 stuffed animals, 2 legs of my bed, a dresser corner, a whole zucchini, a whole pack of cough candies and 4 birth control pills. These are the things I can remember.
I have always had this problem with her getting into things she's not supposed to. Since she was a puppy, I've spanked her when she's eaten something bad. Sometimes, I must admit, a little harder than I should have (I REALLY like those dress shoes!).
Abbi has become so accustomed to being spanked that when she does something bad, she will run away and automatically tuck her bum under so that when I go to hit her, I miss. As IF she's not laughing inside when I'm running around the room trying to hit a 14 pound ball of hair!
Sometimes when I shower, I bring her into the bathroom with me just because she has a mischevious look in her eyes and I can tell she really wants to get into something. She has recently been caught about a 1/2 a dozen times on the coffee table, computer desk and dining room table. Now, if I was her, I'd fear me. But, now when she gets into something, when I catch her - she acutally wags her tail like crazy JUST before I get to her, then her ears go back and her bum goes down as she runs around the house laughing at me that she got away with it AGAIN!
The point of my story about my dog is not that I'm a dog freak. This morning Abbit taught me a huge lesson. I came out of the shower and Abbi was on the couch wagging her tail. I knew immediately she had eaten something again.
She had torn to bits the box from our deck of cards from off the coffee table. As I got closer to her, her floppy ears went back and she quickly reverted into cute-little-puppy mode and took off, while I was chasing her into the bedroom telling her she was a bad girl.
When she got to the bedroom, she cowered on the bed and closed her eyes. I actually had no intension of hitting her, but as she did that I yelled at her, "If you know it's bad, why do you do it?!"
It was like God spoke those words audibly to me at that moment and I began to cry. You see, God's been working on some habits in my life lately. Some things that are not pleasing to Him. There are some things I do that are causing my self-control and will-power to be put to the side. At that moment, I looked at Abbi and saw the perfect picture of God, looking at me as I cowered in the corner.
"If you know it's bad, why do you do it?" It grieves Him! It's not about how I will be punished, but how my life goes backwards when I do those things. How many things has Abbi eaten and destroyed, how dissappointed have I been in her? Imagine how much more my God grieves every time Satan defeats me in those areas of self-control in my life? How dissappointed must God be for me when I sin again and again. I CHOOSE to do it!
I walked to Abbi on the bed and sat with her for a minute. And even though she doesn't understand words, I told her I still loved her, because I know that's what God does everytime. I pet her and cried on my bed.
Thank God that no matter how many times I fall, fail, sin, dissappoint - He still loves me! He still sees me as His and tells me He loves. He's there with a corrective hand and a reminder, but it's in love and no matter what, He reminds me of what He did for me that allowed me to get away from the punishment I deserve.
So, this day I use Abbi's example to start making those changes in my life. No excuses, just forgiveness when I fall.
