{"id":4296,"date":"2020-06-17T19:58:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T00:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=4296"},"modified":"2020-06-17T20:03:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T01:03:10","slug":"sit-stay-down-kneel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=4296","title":{"rendered":"SIT!  STAY!  DOWN!  KNEEL?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every good dog is trained, commended, rewarded, and then praised for learning the basics of obedience.<br \/>\nWhy?<br \/>\nSo that, in every situation, especially in an emergency, the dog&#8217;s obedient behavior can be counted on.<br \/>\nBut honestly, it&#8217;s mostly to show off to friends the accomplishments of submission and obedience&#8212;amazing dog, amazing owner.<br \/>\nDogs comply so well to verbal commands, and we all love it.<br \/>\n(Cats not so much, usually not at all.)<br \/>\nFace it, ninety percent of all this is for the owner&#8212;called &#8216;master&#8217; for a reason.<br \/>\n&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<br \/>\nThe endearing value of relationships with our beloved creatures is far more than their obedience.<br \/>\nBut without obedience, the relationship is not worth much.<br \/>\n&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<br \/>\nSIT!&#8212;Dog sits.<br \/>\nSTAY!&#8212;Dog stays.<br \/>\nDOWN!&#8212;Dog lies down.<br \/>\nKNEEL?&#8212;There is something different about &#8216;kneel&#8217; that animals can&#8217;t get, only humans.<br \/>\nOur Master commands, and we do obey.<br \/>\nBut I am convinced that everyone who has decided to follow Jesus, will find a new depth to your relationship if you kneel before your Master every day.<br \/>\nTry it&#8212;Do it&#8212;Literally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every good dog is trained, commended, rewarded, and then praised for learning the basics of obedience. Why? So that, in every situation, especially in an emergency, the dog&#8217;s obedient behavior can be counted on. But honestly, it&#8217;s mostly to show off to friends the accomplishments of submission and obedience&#8212;amazing dog, amazing owner. Dogs comply so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-inspire_lifter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4296"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4298,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4296\/revisions\/4298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}