What Barking Dogs Can Teach You About Sin ?

I have a little chihuahua.

He’s just about the cutest little chihuahua you’ve ever seen but he’s also a punk.

You can tell he tries really hard to be good but I find he often can’t help himself.

Our neighbors have about 20 dogs…

And they bark every time someone walks by… or drives by… or if there’s a cat… or a bird… or if they just want to bark…

And my sweet innocent puppy tries to fight the urge to join in but sometimes he just can’t help himself.

What we’ve found works best, rather than telling him to be quiet or getting him to calm down is to distract him.

If we want him to stop growling and barking all my wife and I need to do is get his attention on one of us.

After that he forgets he’s barking at something (usually he doesn’t even know why he’s barking he’s just doing it cause the other dogs are…) and just goes back to playing or laying down in his bed.

I was laughing at how dumb dogs are then it hit me…

We are no better than the dumb dogs when we sin.

Think about it…

Dogs: see something and want to bark at it

Us: tempted by sin and want to do it

Dogs: hear others barking and want to join in

Us: see others sinning and want to join in

Dogs: bark even though they have no idea why they are barking

Us: sin even though we have no idea why we want to sin

Dogs: the best way to get them to stop is to distract them

Us: the best way to keep from sinning is to get our focus off the sin; to distract us.

It’s true, for all our sophistication and accomplishments we are still pretty darn simple creatures.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, focus on these things. – Philippians 4:8

The temptation to bark won’t overcome you so long as you learn to control your focus.

– Andre

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