Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday November 8, 2011

A sign on a Dog pound carried this note:

"Pets are for life, not just for Christmas.
Each of us waits for the joy of a home.
Take one of us in and you'll never go kissless,
So long as you treat us as one of your own."

It's approaching the time of year when hundreds of thousands of cute little darling puppies will be given as gifts for Christmas. Tragically many if not most will be cast aside by June and more than few long before. By August or September a majority will be euthanized in different ways and end up in landfills, mass graves or crematories and some will be melted to a protein liquid and used for dog food. Merry Christmas.

The airheaded cavalier manner in which our animals are treated in our country says more about our spiritual condition than you might think. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 14:34 "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." The point being that when a person or people are the recipients of God's righteousness they are on the way up as God exalts or lifts them to a higher station, thus giving them along with His blessings additional responsibility.

Now comes Solomon with this gem in Proverbs 12:10 "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." A righteous man does regard his beast thus we may assume an unrighteous man does not, with perhaps a sort of balance between the two extremes.

As I chewed on Proverbs 12:10 I went to Strong's Hebrew Indexer and went through each word. The Hebrew for "regardeth" is used one time in the Bible and that use is here. Yada is the word and the different meanings are as long as your arm. Here are just a few: to know, observe, care, recognition, instruction, friend and my favorite, kinfolk.

A truly righteous person cares for his beast or beasts as a righteous man cares for his family and we know Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:8 "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." In a day when ministers end up in court being sued for Non-Support and ministries tolerate such deniers of the faith in their midst is it any wonder that the lower animals suffer so. Back to point, if a righteous man has tender care for his family, so also a righteous man is to express a tender care for beasts under his responsibility.

Today's letter is not really about dogs of which Mrs. Lilly and I now care for five, but about a Christian's responsibility. Are you truly righteous enough to give a cute puppy to a child and disciplined enough to teach the child by example to properly love and care for the dog later on? Well?

Larry (Dog Man) Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit.

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