Reign In Your Dog

Have you ever seen a person who looks like they have it all together, and then the facade is broken as you see one thing that is really out of sorts? 

There’s an older man in my neighborhood who seems to be former military. He’s got that military bearing and physique, his yard is meticulous, his house is neat as a pin on the outside. 

But when he walks his dog, all bets are off. 

He has a really long leash, and his dog wanders wherever he wants. I’ve seen him come up in our yard almost all the way to the front of my house, which is at least 20 feet from the sidewalk. And we have dogs as well, and they don’t like it that he does that. 

And when other people are nearby, he doesn’t rein in his dog. He just glares at them like they’re encroaching on his territory. 

Tina’s theory is that his wife won’t let him smoke in the house, so she says “Get that cigarette out of here. And while you’re at it, take the dog on a walk!” So he does, but with great reluctance.

Sometimes we can have everything so under control, but there’s this one thing we just can’t seem to ‘get together’. 

Our own little dog that we take for walks in the neighborhood, if you will. 

And it gets all up in everybody’s business, and it walks all over their yards, maybe digs a little in their garden, and sometimes it ‘does its business’ there. (And why would we carry little bags with us to clean it up? Isn’t it their problem? After all, it’s their yard!) 

Can I let you in on a little secret? No one has it ALL together. Everyone has struggles. Everyone has areas of their lives that maybe they’ve let run a little wild, or have a hard time controlling. Or things they just don’t feel like they have the energy to rein in. 

The thing is, we can’t be offended when people gently suggest we get a shorter leash on that thing. Or stop letting it ‘do its business’ in their yard. (Or at least make an attempt to clean it up afterward.) 

These little pets of ours seem like no big deal until they start affecting other people. When someone else makes a recommendation that we ‘get control of our dog’, the problem is bigger than we realized. 

So whether your ‘dog’ is: saying things you shouldn’t, losing your temper, overspending, overeating, gossip, cutting sarcasm…you can start by getting a shorter leash for that thing. Ask God to help you recognize when it’s in someone else’s yard, and then ask for help to clean up the mess when it ‘does its business’ uninvited. 

Be a good neighbor. 

2 Tim 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

‘Sound mind’ here means discipline or self-control. If you are God’s child, He has already given you this spirit, and it’s a spirit of power and love. So you CAN learn to rein in your dog through God’s power, because you should want to love your neighbors.

Galatians 5:22-23
(22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
(23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Proverbs 25:28
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

Proverbs 16:32
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.