Unshackled Moments ~ February 18 ~ The Puppy And The Fishing Lure

There is something beautiful about seeing a Brittany Spaniel puppy nose to the ground suddenly smell something interesting and hit a point at about six weeks of age. They're not sure what they smell. They don't understand that the freezing is a good thing, they are just doing what their brains are wired to do. But it's beautiful. As they grow older and learn a little, those instincts should be honed and they should learn not to react with a pointing freeze to things other than game birds, and perhaps rabbits and squirrels. If they stop pointing completely and flush quail they are falling short of what they were made to do. They were giving the instinct to point for a reason. If they point when there is nothing there or at armadillos, they can't be trusted. The instincts are God given, but they must be honed, disciplined and used to fulfill purpose. They are not intended to rule indiscriminately.

Cavalier puppies share some instincts in common with Britts. Of course they are both dogs, so some instincts are universally canine, but Cavs also are birders, if you go back a ways. Those hunting instincts have not been bred out completely. It's the hunting instinct that attracts puppies and kittens to the sparkly and the shiny. My nephew told me about an incident where my sister-in-law's 13 week old puppy's instincts caused a problem more serious than hording clothes and things that are not dog toys.

A fishing lure had been dropped outside, unbeknownst to the family, and the puppy found it. It sparkled and caught the eye, and instinct said grab it. So she did. Seconds later she regretted it.  My brother hurried to help the crying pup and managed to remove the hooks without further injury. She's fine and healing. But she didn't understand that the family holding her down so that she couldn't move was actually doing a good thing, making it possible to remove the lure without tearing her. She couldn't understand that the man taking the time to use pliers to flatten the barbs on the hooks and work them out of her lip slowly was doing so in order to not make things worse, that the slow way was the only way. She wanted the hooks out instantly.

We are like that puppy sometimes. God gave us instincts for a purpose. They are not bad things. The instinct to be social,  to eat, to sleep, to enjoy pleasure, to fight or flee, to enjoy pleasure, to have sex, and on and on, are all instincts that have helped us stay alive as a person and as a people. But when the instincts go awry and rule without control or discipline or understanding, the result to our life is a lot like that puppy. We find ourselves hurting, confused and stuck in the middle of a situation that we were never supposed to be in. Then we want instant release and relief. But it usually doesn't work that way either. When our instincts get us in trouble, we need help to get out of it. Sometimes the help itself is painful or at least uncomfortable. We have less freedom at first, not more, because restriction is part of the unbinding process. We don't understand some of what needs to be done, and it goes against our nature and instincts to submit to the process, and we want to wiggle out and run away like the puppy wanted to escape the grip of the people holding her still against her instinctive reaction to the pain.

We want our hooks out now, but God knows that simply removing them might do more harm. So the process is slower than we like. Even after we are free, it takes time to heal. There may even be a scar. We might feel that the instinct which drove us is a bad thing. But it's not. When we submit to the Master and allow Him to guide and direct us, to control and discipline us, those same instincts that have caused us grief and pain in the past can be the very means by which we fulfill a greater purpose and enjoy a life worth living. Overcoming the problems of the past is not found in quenching or eliminating our instincts but in surrendering those instincts, along with the rest of us, to the One who gave them to us.

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t of despair.