I know many of y’all have seen and even liked this picture. But today I have something to share with you about the dog in this picture.

Her name is Ellie Mae, and although she loves me very much, she sometimes does things that make me very mad. Ellie lives for the confirmation of love that I can give her, and I know that all she really wants to do is to please me. It's in her breed; it’s the way she is wired and it's all she really knows.

But she also has a lot of natural instincts.

Naturally she wants to chase things and destroy things (and wake up Mom really early).

So today when I got home from church, I was pretty disappointed to find that Ellie had chewed up my favorite baseball cap.

A baseball cap that was hanging on my closet door. Ellie worked very hard to find that cap and chew it up. You see, Ellie is a year old, and she knows better at this point. She has been reprimanded somany times for chewing on things. Today I was pretty disappointed in her. Finding that chewed-up baseball cap made me tired. Tired of her not listening to my commands and exhausted from trying to teach her without seeing any change in her behavior.

Ellie obviously hasn’t learned her lesson. It’s like she has learned the consequences of her actions, but chooses to do it anyway because she wants to do just what she wants to do. And I know she doesn’t enjoy getting in trouble because she always tries to avoid me when she’s done something bad. Nevertheless, she continues to do it anyway.

Instead of being yelled at or threatened, Ellie got the silent treatment today.

I closed all the doors in the house. I kept her away from all that she found comfortable (she really likes hiding under my bed to avoid me) and then I ignored her. No running away, no avoiding me and no easy way out this time.

I figured that if she hadn’t learned her lesson, then I should change her punishment, and immediately her behavior changed.

She was so ashamed and worried; it’s like she thought I had stopped loving her.

I hadn’t.

I was just disappointed in her behavior.

That made me think. I am my dog, and she probably gets that behavior from me! There have been so many instances in life where God has tried to teach me a lesson, and I continue to ignore Him. I do what I want to do because I can. Then suddenly God becomes quiet. I never notice my magnitude of what I have done until there is silence, and then I wonder if maybe I’ve messed up so bad that God could somehow love me less.

But the great thing is that our God loves us more than I could ever fathom loving Ellie. God will never love us less or disown us. But we can disappoint Him with our choices. I’m sure there have been many moments when God looked down to see me “tearing up” something and thought to Himself, “Don’t you know better by now?” In all of my anger and frustration today, I learned a great lesson about God's love for me, despite my choices. How awesome is it that He took a negative situation and turned it into such a beautiful lesson?

And just in case anyone was wondering…

I am now accepting donations for a new favorite baseball cap.