Little Joey recently had the inevitable male puppy surgery, he was neutered. Silly us, we thought one or two days of keeping him reasonably quiet and that would be it. Nope. Seven days! Yes, that’s right! Seven days of keeping a 7-month old Boston Terrier mix calm and away from his favorite area to lick.

You should have seen us trying to get the plastic cone thingy over his head, especially when I had to do it by myself. Thank the good Lord, our daughter has a calming way with her little guy and he responded to her cuddling time and instructions not to lick ‘you know where’. So, he only had to where the dreaded ‘Elizabeth collar’ while in his kennel, but even then it was a struggle and he just hated wearing that thing.

It would have made it so much easier if only we could have explained to him the importance of the collar and what awful infection would happen if he failed to wear the collar and licked ‘you know where’. Or would it?

Our loving Father, the God of the universe, has given us a very detailed list of His guidelines and why those guidelines excist and yet we still squirm and resist and even bite at what we call restraints.

I can just picture God struggling to hold my head still while He tries to place the godly restraint of His Holy Words over my head to protect my mind from evil, jealousy, hatred and lust. He tells me it is for my good and tells my why it is for my good, but more often than not, I push back…I even swipe at His attempts to protect me.

We love Joey so much that we restrained him, as needed, to allow his sutures to heal and prevent infection. God does no less for us. Praise Him!

“Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” Psalm 119:11