Kristina Ramirez Jordan
Today I was grooming my dogs, a miniature Pomeranian, and a toy Poodle. The Pomeranian, who is the younger of the two, just stood there and let me do what needed to be done to get his hair and nails cut. The only time he even made a sound, was when I would come across a tangle, or knot. He would then squeal
in apparent pain, then stop while I tried to sooth him and find the knot and try to gently as possible either comb or cut it out.
On the other hand, the Poodle cannot stand to be groomed and, even though she never utters a sound, she wiggles, tries to sit down when I need her to stand, get away if I don't have a constant hold on to some part of her anatomy. Sometimes she even jumps or wiggles just when I start to make a cut, and it causes me to nip her skin and draw blood. I hate it when I cause her to bleed, but I know that I need to get her groomed, and if she had been still then it would not have resulted in a cut.
This got me to thinking that this is how Christians sometime act when God is trying to trim out some of the unfavorable things in our lives that will not bring him honor and glory. In the Bible it is likened to pruning a vine. We need to have the dead and decayed parts of the vine pruned away to make room for new and healthy growth. It is not always a welcomed process though.
Just like my Pomeranian, some Christians will take the pruning God needs to do on them in stride and just "go with the flow." They may feel a twinge of pain every once in a while, when God comes across a "knot," or an area of their life that they are reluctant to change. But for the most part, they accept God's grooming of their life and go happily on their way when it is all over.
Others, are more like my Poodle, and they run from God, they make excuses for all the bad things they have done, which cause them to go through bad experiences in their life, and they blame the bad things on God, (just like I get a look from the dog like it is my fault.) God does not want to discipline his children any more than I wanted to accidently snip the dog's skin, but when we resist his work in our life, sometimes it is the only way he can get our attention.
So, please don't be like my Poodle, but be more like the Pomeranian and let God work in your life when He needs to, and then go happily on your way knowing that you are doing what God wants you to do today.
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