A Lesson From My Dogs

We have two Pomeranian dogs at our house. We actually bought three of them, all siblings. Our daughter has one of them where she lives while attending college. One is ours and the third belongs to my son and will be going to live with him as soon as he finds another apartment which will allow him to have his dog. These two that we have are really entertaining to watch. Slice (my son's dog) is the really sly  one who just can never stop. He is always searching, snooping to see what new thing he can find. Our dog, Bella is the jealous one. She cannot stand to see Slice be picked up or pet or heaven forbid, receive something that she does not have. Now mind you, you can give her the exact same thing that you are giving to Slice, but that does not matter. She has to have what Slice has. We will give them each rawhide bones to chew on, and she will leave hers to always try to take the one Slice has. If Slice dare walk away from his to get a drink or anything at all, Bella is on it in a flash. The really dumb thing is, Bella's rawhide can be bigger, and usually is because she has been too busy watching Slice to bother to chew on her own, and she will leave the bigger piece to get what her brother has. 

I was watching this whole routine again this morning and it hit me, this is what coveting someone else's property or belonging's is like. The sad truth is that in today's society, we pretty well teach our children to covet. We tell them to "reach for the stars." Now, that in itself would not be so bad, but what we are instilling in them is to see what someone else has, and to go for it, rather than teaching them to be content with what God's plan is for their own life. And that is where coveting is born.

Here are some simple questions we need to ask ourselves: 
- Do I ever complain about my lot in life as compared to someone else?

- Do I find myself asking why I cannot sing as well as someone else? Or why can I not play guitar like him? Or why does she have all that talent and I seem to have none? 

- Do I find myself bemoaning the fact that my coworker always get the breaks?

- Do I find myself longing for the marriage I see someone else having? Or that money? Or that talent or ability? Or maybe even to look as pretty or handsome as someone else? 

Simply put; when you or  I want what God has given to someone else - we are coveting. It's no small wonder that we have become this way. Almost every aspect of our lives today push us toward coveting what someone else has. Watch television for one hour and count how many advertisements lead us to coveting.
Even in the church we find ourselves coveting. When I see your blessing and I find myself feeling bitter or cheated... the reason is because I am coveting. We need to come to the place that we know and understand that God is leading us somewhere... and if we have our eyes on what someone else has (or has not had to face) we will miss the open door before us because our eye is on them, rather than what God is trying to bring into our own lives.

It reminds me of something that happened a few weeks ago. Daniel's dog, Slice needed to take some medication. The medicine is made in the form of a treat so that he will take it.  I did not want Bella to be left out, so I had one of her favorite treats in my other hand to give to her. I called them to me and each started to take their treat from me. Bella grabbed hers, but saw that Slice was getting something different so she dropped her treat and tried to take Slice's medicine from him. Slice gulped down his "treat" and then ran over and took Bella's treat as well. Bella stopped and looked at me as if to ask, "are you going to allow this?" I looked at her and said, "Don't look at me, your greed caused this, so you do without."
Even a dog can teach us a lesson.