I must preface these next lessons with a disclaimer. I love dogs! However, some of their behaviors are just not appealing. What is interesting is that even with these not so pleasant habits lessons can be learned. With that in mind, read on. Don’t worry it is all “G” rated.

Puppy Lesson Number Six

Smell Everything!

Don’t let this adorable little face and cute little nose fool you! Both the face and the nose have been to places that we shall not even speak of! I realize the over active smeller of  dogs is a god-given instinct, but its the stuff they like to smell that is in question here. Joey likes me best when I’ve come in from my three mile walk every day. In fact, he’s the only one who likes me at that point. It seems the more odious the smell the more he wants to sniff.

He sniffs everything; the furniture, the plants, our feet, our socks and shoes, the floors. And don’t get me started on being outdoors. We don’t go on walks. We go on stops! Every two feet he is stopping to smell something! But and this is an important but…this is how he survives by smelling everything. It’s how he tests what is good for him and what is not. Of course some of his choices of what he thinks is good for him do not coincide with what we think is good for him, but billions of dogs have survived over thousands of years using their sense of smell to survive. So, I suspect Joey and his sniffer will do just fine in the long run.

We could use a little of that trait in our spiritual lives; sniffing things out…testing them if they are good or bad for us. Don’t most of us just dive right into new ideas, new agendas, new philosophies without giving them much more than a cursory thought. Shame on us! We not only have the ultimate truth of God written down for us in the Bible, we have the Very Truth living inside of us (if we are a disciple of Jesus) leading and guiding us into all truth. We are without excuse if we are driven by every wind of doctrine and tossed.

We need to get our sniffers back to work and test the spirits if they are of God or…Not!

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” I John 4:1 (NASB)

“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” Ephesians 4:15