Bethiepoo03

spring break

I have been on spring break this past week, and that is
why it has taken me so long to write another entry.
I went home this week, and it was a week filled with many
various adventures.
My parents got a little puppy. She's adorable. She's a
chocholate lab/boxer mix. She's such a puppy! I have
grown up with dogs, so I have had puppies around the house
before, but I was never old enough to truly understand all
that there was to having a puppy.
She's adorable. She reminds me as a baby deer when I see
her try to run, and her feet fall out from under her and
she falls on the floor. There are so many things that she
does not understand. She has to learn everything. For
example, when she was born there was nothing in her that
just KNEW the difference between her little dog bone and
my finger that was holding it for her. lol...it took her
chomping down on both at the same time for me to very
intentoinally teach her by giving her a little swat. Then
there is the house training thing. I hate having to swat
the dog, or scolding her, but it's the only way she's ever
going to learn. I remember my mom saying "it's the most
loving thing that we can do for her so that she'll learn.
She has to learn these things now. What happens when she
decides she's going to chomp down on my finger when she's
bigger and her jaw is stronger? She needs to learn that
it's bad to chew on the table legs in our kitchen now, so
that she can avoid even heavier consequences later in the
future.

Isn't that the way that God is with us? He cares enough
to correct us. He cares enough to teach us the lessons
now, when the consequences are less drastic and severe so
that later down the road, hopefully, if we have drawn
lifes lessons, we can avoid certian things that may
eventually lead to very dangerous waters.

our house is very close to a main road. We have not yet
allowed the puppy to walk around in the front yard with
out the leash on, because she is not old enough to know
that the cars are dangerous. In fact, she wants to chase
after them when she sees them. Our way of preventing her
from wandering in the road, at this point is keeping her
tied to the leash. (only in the front yard, we have a
very spacious back yard that she can frolick in) I suppose
in a way it could be said that we are holding her back,
making decisions for her. (the decision made would be
that she's not going to wander out into the road and get
hit by a car) Why doesn't God do that for us? It's the
ultimate principle of love. God has given us free
choice. He created us to love Him and to worship Him, but
he knew that if He made it so that we didn't have a choice
it wouldn't really be love. It's only love when we choose
to love. That means that we can choose not to love as
well. God is there guiding our footsteps, but we can make
the choice to, or not to walk where he is guiding us.
I saw a very interesting movie a couple of weeks ago
called "Artificial intelligence" and the premise was that
a robot was created to love whoever the person was that
activated it. As we see throughout the movie, it wasn't
really love, the "mother" couldn't truly accept the love
because she knew that the only reason that robot loved her
was because she forced it to.

my puppy loves me because it's a puppy and she doesn't
know any better. I love Jesus because I see all that He
has done for me. I am thankful, and I know that there is
nothing I can do to equal out what has been done for me.
It's not a fair 50/50 relationship. Jesus gave all, and
we recieve what He has given. After we can see what has
been given, then we are in a position to be able to come
back and ask what we can do to serve, but it's not because
we are forced to but simply because we want to out or
genuine greatfulness. That's the whole thing behind
Christianity. People think that it's just a bunch of laws
and rules. Following those rules can not get a person to
Heavan. As a matter of fact, if you have ever tried to
follow them you will find it's impossible to follow the
rules. That's why we have Jesus. He's the one who get's
us to Hevan, and then he gives us the strength to be able
to follow the rules. We then follow them, not beacuse our
salvation is dependant on it, but because wer'e so
thankful for what Jesus has done for us.

BETH