Proverbs 3:3-6

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your understanding; in all of your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:3-6

This scripture does not mean to bind love faithfulness around  half of our heart. It means all of the heart. It means to put them to use in our lives, to practice them in every situation.

Hard to do sometimes. Right?

We get down and discouraged at times. When we do, we can forget love and patience.

I have a little mixed Maltese dog. We rescued her in 2015 and from the second we brought her home, she has attached herself to me so much that she doesn't want me out of her sight. 
Last evening I was extremely tired but I needed to talk to my husband about something, who was in the living room watching tv. So I carried her there and sat her down in the recliner with me. The next thing I know, she jumped off it and a few seconds later she was back again wanting up with me. Well, I have a rule when it comes to her doing that because I could sit there for an hour and the whole time she would be back and forth and it can be quite annoying when we are trying to talk especially. My rule is, once down that is it. She does not get any more chances.  And I have way to convey that to her without yelling  or worse yet, abusing her. And it usually works. Last evening it didn't. 

 The Maltese breed is such that they would rather be scolded by their owner, then ignored. The more i tried to give her the command to stop, the more she determined to get picked up as she bounced up and down, happily barking the whole time and the angrier i got,and the more frustrated I became when she wasn't obeying me.

I am afraid that my love for her was not bound around my heart in those minutes that this took place. But I will say, my faithfulness to her was. When I wasn't getting anywhere with her, I simply picked her up and took her in the other room. What we needed to talk about was important but it could wait.

Bind love and faithfulness around your neck, so that you never forget to practice them in every situation. What is in the heart, concerning the things we feel-will come out in some way, at some time. We must be prepared so that we don't fall into temptation to sin. I could have given her a good smack. But believe me, that would not have done a  bit of good and she could have been hurt. I do not believe in abusing our pets and so it had to be handled in a different way.

In all our ways we are to acknowledge him. To obey his commands, knowing that he is supreme and has our best interests at heart. 

And when we do, he will direct our paths so that we don't trip up and go the sin route, which I could have done last evening because I was getting madder and madder at her. 

That may have been a lesson in practicing these things in a small way. But it is in these kinds of ways that we learn so that when the bigger things come along, we already know what to do. 

August 9, 2019 Promise: Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are new. 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

Thanks for stopping by Friends. Have a blessed weekend!