Beautiful and Well Trained

Valerie Cullers 35 Comments

Our company left this morning for Utah. It was a pleasure seeing them again and we so enjoyed visiting with them. Before they came, the husband asked if they could bring their dog to our home. He said she was well behaved and they had spent thousands of hours training her. So jokingly, I said, ” So you’re saying she is better behaved than we are! He replied with a laugh, “Yes, I guess I am.”

True to form, Moxie was everything they said and more. It was one of the most beautiful dogs I had ever seen. It was polar white and had dark eyes and a dark nose. It was absolutely striking in its beauty and demeanor. I had never had a dog in my home that was so beautiful and well trained. We later learned she had been a search and rescue dog and had been trained in multiple areas in order to find  missing persons. They had indeed spent thousands of hours training her.IMG_0072 Moxie 

She was an older dog but was still beautiful. Lying in bed the first night of their visit, I said to my husband, “That dog is SO beautiful!” To which he replied, “It’s the spirit of the dog you see.” I thought about his remark for a while. He was right; the sweetness of the dog was coming through in my every interaction with her. 

That got me to thinking. As I age, I want to have an inner beauty about me. When people look at me, I want them to see a beautiful spirit inside of me shining through. How can I achieve that?

Well for sure, I know a few ways that will help make me into the beautiful person I want to be. One is by spending time with the Lord in His Word. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be equipped for every good work. 2 Tim. 3: 15-17. If I do this, I will be well trained and able to handle the situations I encounter in a godly manner. 

The second way is by yielding my life to the Holy Spirit and letting Him develop His fruit in my life. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Gal. 5: 22-23. A person with that kind of spirit will be truly beautiful and a delight to be around. 

Yes, beautiful and well trained…that’s what I want to be!

35 thoughts on “Beautiful and Well Trained”

  5. What a wonderful story and a profound lesson. I’m praying with you, that my Christ-centered spirit will be more beautiful than any physical image. I love your two points – God’s Word and inviting the work of the Holy Spirit to recreate me day by day. Excellent message!

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  6. In these days when I often get recluse on medication or weather, I observe the birds. Days like this, the nest they built in the tree that sits in front of my window was destroyed by a thunderstorm. They came back and examined the twigs around, what was left of the nest and a few days later they returned and started the new house. The persistence and strength of the continuing revealed, to me, the beauty of nature and the inner beauty of the birds. Only those who believe can truly comprehend every spontaneous gesture of inner life and intensity in what they believe. A gift from God that sometimes or almost always do not look as we should. Your post is magnificent and shows that animals possess a purity that so often we do not know how to explain. The answer lies in the wisdom and Sensibility of God,

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  8. There are at least 2 per Schism Sts Valerie. One of Milan. The earliest. I too had the fortune that my parents chose a Christian Name for me. Vladimir Moss told me to pray to my Name Saint. I realize now how much more difficult it is to find God for those with strange names or even more difficult cultural Backgrounds. Like Islam, which is big here. Poor Souls. We need to be thankful for our opportunity and try reaching out, even just in our hearts and prayer.

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