So now we have a family pet, a dog, a ”Jackapoo” which is a cross between a Jack Russel Terrier and a poodle. Regularly during the day I call him Patty’s dog, when he poops on the floor, when he pee’s on the floor, when he whines, when he barks, and when he chews up one of my books. The solution, my kids say, is to train him, then he won’t do those nasty things anymore. A dog’s intelligence is slightly higher than those rioting in Portland so it takes a little work to train them, and lots of patience. I am letting a Patty do the potty training, and I will take care of the whining, barking, and chewing, and Sherri is going to train him not to jump on you, although I don’t care if he jumps on me. Roscoe is already pretty sensitive to my voice, he can easily tell the difference between my ”good boy” voice, and my ”bad boy” voice, and responds appropriately to both, so my part of his training won’t take long.

God trains us, and uses difficult times in life to do it

Hebrews 12:10-11 God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

God, the creator of the universe trains me so that I will be just like him. The Bible talks about those who are stiff necked, hard-hearted, and scoffers who don’t train well, not even with God the all-wise one doing the training. I have a given number of days to live and I don’t want to miss a single training episode with my creator.