Our Border Collie/Chow rescue dog was definitely a challenge! Adorable as a puppy, as an adolescent she looked more like a vampire bat with razor sharp teeth and large ears she hadn’t grown into yet. Her behavior was worrisome. Having firmly decided that she was the alpha female of our family, she had no intention of complying with our instructions. She would jump on us and our guests, her sharp claws digging into our skin. Occasionally, her playful bites would draw blood. She ignored our commands to come and rebelled at our attempts to correct her destructive behavior. We were at our wit’s end!
We decided to call in the big guns. Ian, the dog trainer we hired, arrived on the scene. A gentle, kind man with a soft voice, I immediately thought that Daisy would eat him for lunch. I was so wrong! Daisy immediately cowered at his feet in a submissive posture. Ian, stroked her, evaluated her and said we had the makings of a great family pet or a family terror. Daisy was highly intelligent, and if we didn’t channel her behaviors in constructive ways, she would continue to disrupt our family’s peace. Ian really liked Daisy and offered to train and keep her if we no longer wanted her. We decided to invest our money and time to train her.
Ian asked what we hoped to accomplish in training. We wanted Daisy to consistently obey our basic commands…sit, stay, down, come, leave it. Ian nodded in agreement with this but then said, “But what would be your dream for this dog? Is there anything that you would like her to be able to do besides this?” I pondered this and responded, “Well, it would be my dream to have a dog that could walk alongside us without a leash, that we could let explore the woods but would return immediately to our sides when we called her. As hikers, Jerry and I longed to be able to take Daisy with us on our adventures on the trails. Ian nodded enthusiastically and said, “We can do that!”
And we did. It took months of intense training. We took Daisy to group classes and worked with her one on one. I would load her into the car, and take her to public places that were full of people and distractions. We’d walk on sidewalks around and through parking lots outside of shopping malls and grocery stores. The investment of time paid off. Daisy learned to respond to our voice commands. When we called “Stop!”, she immediately froze. When we said, “Wait,” she would wait for us to catch up to her. If she stopped to investigate something we knew would be bad for her to ingest, the command, “leave it”, would cause her to leave the temptation. But the most satisfying response was when we told her to “Come” and she came and sat at our feet.
Daisy became a word picture for us. Before her training to listen and obey her master’s voice, she was restrained by a leash, pulling hard against the leash in her struggle for freedom. Walking wasn’t a pleasant activity for either of us as I struggled to control and restrain her with a short leash. She could not be trusted on a long leash and off-leash was not even an option.
Now, Daisy would walk contentedly with or without a leash. Because she listened and obeyed, she had great freedom to safely explore her surroundings. When we saw a car coming, something that might harm her or something that she could ingest that would make her sick, we could gently pull or call her back to us. Daisy’s obedience to her master resulted in the freedom she longed to have!
Oh, that we would learn to love, listen and obey our Master’s voice! His Word declares that Jesus came so we could experience freedom. Psalm 119:45 declares, “I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to Your commandments”. God’s commands and precepts are not meant to restrict our freedom, but are given so we can safely enjoy the blessings of freedom. Like Daisy, we don’t have to be enslaved and entrapped by our fleshly desires and sinful tendencies. Instead, the Spirit of our Living God offers us the power to love and obey the One who offers the blessing of a life of freedom!
Let us heed the Word in Hebrews which says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…”. When He tells us to stop, to wait, to leave it or to come to Him, let us respond with love for our Master. In joyful obedience, may we respond to His voice and live a life of freedom!
