How often do you find that someone can say something that you totally
agree with, only to find yourself fighting against that very advice? Are we all hypocrites?
As a dog trainer, taking your own advice can be hard. I tell my students over and over how to train, how to interact with their dogs, how to handle situations. Then I go home. And I change. Is it that I'm only putting on a facade? Is it the same in other areas of my life?
I have to answer no. I truly agree with what I teach. However, putting it into action is one of the hardest things to do. My mind has been taught a different reaction than what I actually want to do. Do you find yourself wanting to be positive with your dog, because you know it really is your fault, yet you still act disappointed in your dog? If your dog doesn't behave well it's a 99% chance that it is your fault. So why get mad? But I still do.
I understand why people, who don't believe the way I do, call Christians hypocrites. I call myself one. I see it all the time in the body of Christ. But please here me out....Don't you do the same thing? If your an agility enthusiast, after agility runs you know that if there were mess ups it was your fault. Yet you find yourself less than enthusiastic with your dog. You give them a pat and a few treats and call it good. You know that's not right, but that's how you feel. I'm the same way! In more than agility. I know that judging someone is wrong. Yet I feel it well up in me. Just as I must make myself reward my Rusty boy, I have to make myself give others grace...even when I don't feel they deserve it.
Think about anything in life. You know what you should do, and you know what you want to do. Sometimes what you want to do wins, even though you feel bad about it later.
I am no different than you. I'm not an amazing saint. I simply allow grace to cover me, and beg God to help me win in the moment by moment battles. God is what is different, not me. As I surrender, he gives me more of him and I find there's less of me. And when there's less of me, there's less heartache. There's less struggle. There's less guilt. It's not that I'm gone, only that I'm more like him, and when I'm like him, I'm like I was made to be.
Even if you aren't a dog person, I hope you understand. It doesn't matter what in life you struggle to do. Do you realize that you shouldn't be mad but still are? Do you struggle to get out of bed? To work in the house? So do I. It's the same thing. Living as a Christian doesn't mean you have "more important, Godly things" to do. It means you do the same chores, you endure the same grumpy customers, you struggle in the same world. However, you do it with someone by you who will never leave. You do it with someone who knows every struggle of your heart. You do it with someone who gives you the power to be who you were made to be.
I'm not a hypocrite. I'm simply human.
