“Leave it! Find it!”

If you’ve ever trained a dog (or perhaps a child), these words might be familiar to you. “Leave it” is often what a dog owner will say when teaching their dog to, you guessed it, leave something alone. I’ve also used “not yours.” Same idea.

You might not be familiar with the command, “Find it” but it’s a real life-saver. My last half dozen dogs or so have learned that when Mommy yells, “Find it!,” it means there are treats scattered all over the floor or all over the yard. The trainer who taught me to use this called it the 911 command. If your dog is running into danger, yell this and most of the time they’ll come racing back to you.

A few months ago, I decided to get serious about addressing Maisy’s madness at the fence line when the neighbor’s grand-dog was visiting. Nothing I did could deter her from barking like a maniac as she tore up and down the fence, doing everything she could to run around and past me.

But now I had Mimi, and Maisy was teaching her bad habits. Time to bite the bullet and put an end to this craziness!

I engaged the services of the head trainer at the kennel where the girls enjoy their Daycamp days. Within 30 minutes, even with the aforementioned grand-dog in the yard next door, we were able to stop the madness by using these two commands. Leave it. Find it.

Maisy already knew that “find it” meant there were treats to be had. “Leave it” was new to her. But combining the two was the magic formula. In a matter of minutes, we were even able to drop the “find it” because she was coming back to us with just the first command.

It’s wonderful when training works the way it’s supposed to!

Just a few days ago, I used these two commands together again because the grand-dog was visiting for Thanksgiving. It didn’t take long for Maisy to remember the treats that awaited her when she came running back to me.

As any animal trainer will tell you, the value of the reward has to be greater than the perceived value of what you want them to leave. A handful of treats in the grass did the trick.

All of this backstory to illustrate another Christian walk lesson from my fur babies.

Sometimes God uses these two commands on me. I must be less intelligent than Maisy because I still haven’t nailed it. I’m not really even listening!

When I am engaging in an action or a behavior or a thought process or an attitude that is anything but kind and loving and … Christian, do I readily heed God’s “leave it” command? Do I instantly turn away from whatever I’m doing or thinking that isn’t honoring to him? Not immediately and not consistently.

What about the second half of that duo? What “treat” is God offering to me when he tells me to “find it?”

In a nutshell, it’s finding him. Maybe that’s through a scripture that encourages us to change directions, or the joy that comes from being obedient to our Maker, or the deep companionship of knowing that our change of direction has now put us back into God’s will for us.

Anything that realigns us with what God calls us to do, or who he calls us to be, is its own blessing. Its value is infinitely greater than that sinful place we just turned away from.

How often I’ve wished that these lessons could be learned in one take. Or even a few takes over 30 minutes like Miss Maisy. But often our sinful heart wants what it wants. It takes countless repetitions, it seems, for the beauty of this reward to be enough to outweigh what we don’t want to “leave.”

One of the reasons I share these slightly quirky perspectives, especially with my dog stories, is that I’ve been helped by the visual that’s created in this picture of dog obedience. And my prayer is that you might also find some victory over those wrong choices as well.

I pray that the next time I’m acting or thinking outside of what God would want for me, I would clearly hear him say to me, “leave it, find it” and I will immediately turn around and run towards the one whose rewards are heavenly and eternal. Better than a milk bone treat any day!

Do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,

that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2