For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, I’d like you to meet Hank. Hank is our Chocolate Lab and he is 2 and a half years old. I have countless stories about Hank and from time to time I figured I could share with you some Lessons From The Lab. Where do I begin?

If you know anything about Labs (especially young ones), one word that describes them is hyper. Hank is no exception and he has done a superb job of raising the hyper standard for fellow Labs worldwide. He’s the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet, that is, if you don’t mind 95 pound dogs who like to tackle you when you walk in the room. He’s not mean or nasty, he just really wants to be loved. Make no mistake, if you come to our house you have come to see Hank. He’s convinced of it. Oddly enough, not once do I remember anyone saying after meeting our wonderful dog, “Man, I really need to get one of those.” I really don’t see why. I mean come on….look at that picture….isn’t he cute?

Hank is really a pretty good dog, and he is very smart. When he is just laying around the house with us, he minds pretty well and he has learned what he can and can’t do. We went through several remote controls, cell phones, flip-flops, and pillows before he finally learned what his toys were. Now he pretty much sticks with his various toys that are scattered throughout the house, and if you ever come over he will show you each and everyone. We are still trying to convince him that the cats are not toys, and I think we are making progress. But Hank has one major weakness…..Angie’s furry Bigfoot house shoes. For some reason, when Hanks sees those obnoxious house shoes, he loses all control and he has to have them, even if they happen to be on Angie’s feet. No longer do the words, “No!” or “Leave it!” hold any power over him. As a result, we’ve had to keep the Bigfeet away from him, hidden in the closet. Whenever he gets a chance he sneaks in our room and finds them. Awhile back my Mom came over to the house to let him out since we were going to be gone all day. When we returned she called and was telling me how much Hank loved that big furry toy of his. At first, I had no idea which toy she meant and then I realized that Hank had pulled a fast one on Gram. He just couldn’t resist.

As ridiculous as Hank’s obsession with Bigfoot house shoes is, it reminds me of how Satan works. As we go through life we learn what we can and can’t do. We learn what things are OK and what things we need to stay away from. But so many times, there is that one thing that we can’t resist. It may seem small and harmless, but deep down we know we should avoid it. Satan is the master of finding out what that one thing is, and using it to draw us away from God and deeper into sin. He dangles it in front of us over and over again until we bite, and when we do we suddenly forget about what’s right and what’s wrong. All we care about is the moment.

Satan wants nothing more than for us to take our focus off of Christ. He doesn’t care where or focus is as long as it’s not on Jesus, and he will do anything to distract us. We need to be alert and ready at all times so we don’t fall into temptation. The only way to be ready is to be truly focused on Christ and His Word. Where’s your focus?

I Peter 5:8-9

8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. NIV