God Lessons as Taught to Me by My Dog

By Beverly Portis

As a first-time pet owner, I never knew how much joy, along with companionship, my adorable, entertaining, loyal, and loving little doggie could bring to my life. And I certainly never entertained the notion that after decades of seeking God and trying to understand his scriptures, a precious addition in my life would teach me some of the most fundamental principles of God’s love for me.

God Lessons: As Taught to Me by My Dog is my account of the fun, and at times humorous, journey of Snoopy Snu Snu and me and the invaluable spiritual epiphanies revealed during our time together. If the mysteries of God and the complexities, as well as turnoffs of religion, are blocking your path to a more intimate relationship with God, follow the walk of my doggie and me and discover and embrace the simplicity of God’s abounding love and mercy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781546278399

Beverly Portis

Ms. Portis is a native of Mississippi and works in the field of executive leadership development. Her credentials include a couple of degrees, as well as a career that spans finance, arts and culture, philanthropy, and leadership. With this, coupled with the challenges that life and relationships inevitably bring, she has experienced the peaks and valleys of life. And while the valleys have been many, Ms Portis shares that, although she didn’t realize it at the time, the most significant peak in her life was the moment she chose to try something new, to follow the path of the ‘old folk’ and put her hand in the hand of the man who calms the sea. She does not proselytize but finds joy and inspiration in sharing the ‘realness’ of God. She’s a believer of life-long learning to include growing emotionally, stretching her mind and body, and evolving spiritually.

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© 2019 Beverly Portis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/30/2019

ISBN: 978-1-5462-7841-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-7840-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-7839-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019901145

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Public Domain

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Set-up

Chapter 2 Choosing and Being Chosen

Chapter 3 The Choice

Chapter 4 Decision Time

Chapter 5 Preparation

Chapter 6 Getting to Know You

Chapter 7 Walking Together

Chapter 8 Time for Re-assurance

Chapter 9 Seeds of Doubt…Return

Chapter 10 Walking in Confidence

Chapter 11 Old dog? New dog?

Chapter 12 The Trust Factor–Running into Harm’s Way

Chapter 13 Cadence in the Walk

Chapter 14 Our Journey’s End

Chapter 15 Thus endeth or beginneth the lesson?

Chapter 16 The Beginning

INTRODUCTION

For as long as I can remember, I have had numerous questions about God and have ruminated on what a relationship with this unseen, yet all powerful entity could look like, feel like…be. There are bible references that present our relationship to God as that of parent/child; so, those who have children may be able to see and understand some of the in’s and out’s of our relationship to and with God more clearly. For example, the pain parents experience when their children willfully make foolish choices and decisions that will have lasting adverse consequences. Further, I think of the patience parents must have in order to bear the process of a child’s growth from the embryonic to adult stages, celebrating their successes, joys, and critical milestones, while mourning their losses, disappointments, and failures.

Looking at the relationship from a different angle, Ephesians compares our relationship with the Lord to that of the bride and groom, where God is the groom and the church is His bride and He commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church. With this particular comparison, what comes to mind for me is the need for forgiveness and lasting, unshakeable commitment. In a marriage mistakes will be made, feelings will be hurt, misunderstandings will occur, arguments will ensue. Forgiveness is necessary if there is to be any hope of having a satisfying union. Of course, piggy backing on that is the need for unshakeable commitment. While some hurts, misunderstandings, and arguments will be easier to forgive, others may not be quite so easy to overcome. Broken vows, lies, and deceit can, if not immediately then over time, erode the bonds of trust, as well as the foundation of faith upon which the longevity of the relationship depends.

Each of these metaphors offers a glimpse into relationship structure and the interdependency of behaviors that help to define the interaction and intimacy of relationships. That God chose the structures of parent/child and husband/wife speak to His view of us as part of his family; as such, these relationship constructs provide an earthly opportunity for people to learn God lessons.

However, having no children and never having been married, I was still left to ponder how this most important of relationships could be experienced and known to me more clearly in my life. Without having a real understanding of how I am to be with God, I have spent more time than I care to admit, e.g. years, decades even, being angry, frustrated, disappointed, and hurt. On other occasions, there has been an overwhelming sense of abandonment, rejection; left to fend for myself during times of intense emotional, mental, and financial strain. In other words, feeling lost and alone during my greatest seasons of need and left to wonder where was God? Or, I was simply asking, Why?

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that some of the mysteries and challenges of my relationship with God would be revealed through a delightful addition to my life. It was through the adoption of my wonderful little pet, my sweet little doggie Snoops, that I was given epiphanies that enabled me to see and realize God-like behaviors in action. It is this experience that compelled me to share "God Lessons: As Taught to Me by My Dog." It is my sincere desire that through this account, you will develop a better understanding of how God may be at work in your life and offer insights that will help you release fears, doubts, frustration, anger, hurt, and disappointment towards God and replace those negative emotional strongholds with a more intimate, loving, trusting relationship with our Father.

Perhaps you’ve taken note that this is about ‘God lessons’ rather than God’s lessons. For the purposes of this manuscript, allow me to explain the difference. God’s lessons would be synonymous with lessons that God is teaching us; it’s about Him dispensing knowledge to us. While God lessons, which is the lens through which this book is being written, refers to me checking out the view from that high place and just for a moment, putting myself in my Father’s shoes, and I’m asking you to do the same. In no way am I playing God, neither am I asking you to do so; but rather this is me viewing and relating situations shared between my beloved doggie and me with the relationship between God and His beloved—us.

CHAPTER ONE

The Set-up

I’ve always considered myself to be a cat person. In fact, as a child my first pet was a beautiful little kitty. As I moved into my teenage years, my pet interests were replaced with playing tag football, climbing trees and boxing (Yep. A tomboy); reading (Yep. A nerd.); championing the cause of the underdog (translation—taking on bullies. Yep. Still in my blood). But my thoughts were overwhelmingly hijacked with questions surrounding the big issues of life, like racial inequities and injustice, economic disparities, hypocrisy in supposedly Godly places, the wrath of God/the love of God. The point is: It would be years, decades really, before any interest of pet ownership would again surface and then, to my surprise, my interest will have shifted from cats to dogs.

My mom played no small part