One year, I took Peanut and Biscuit to their first ever dog Easter egg hunt at a local pet store. They had to find treat-filled plastic eggs, and once they touched them with their noses, I could pick them up and put them in a bag.
After the Easter egg hunt, I saved some of the plastic eggs so I could use this as a challenge all year. At first I just hid them in fairly noticeable places. But as Peanut began to excel at the game, I started hiding them behind and under things so she’d really have to sniff them out.
One day, I hid the egg behind my CD player. Peanut searched and searched, but couldn’t find it. So it stayed there while I went to work and she got locked in the kitchen. Then when I got home, she started searching again. At one point, she got so close to it that I thought she had it, but then she kept on sniffing.
As she started to walk away from the right spot, I said, “No Peanut, you were so close! Turn back around and look where you just were.” These were complicated sentences for a dog to understand. But Peanut looked at me, turned around, and sniffed behind the CD player, finding the egg immediately. I was so impressed that she understood me and followed my directions!
If anyone else had given instructions like that to Peanut, there’s no way she would’ve followed them. The truth is, I don’t think she understood all the words exactly. She understood the sentiment behind them because she knows my voice, my commands, so intimately.
That’s the way we can listen to God. The more we listen and obey, the more we understand him. Even when his commands seem confusing or over our heads, when our ears are trained to listen and obey our master, we’ll know what to do.
When have you heard God speaking to you?
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