My chocolate Lab, Macy, is consumed by the thought of food. As soon as I get up, she hops up from beside my bed and wags her tail expectantly. She knows that she needs to go do her “business” outside before I will feed her, so sometimes she will do nothing but make a token circle around the patio, and then beg to be let back in. As soon as she is inside, she bounces around my feet and keeps trying to move me in the direction of the room where we feed her. Once fed, she lays contentedly at my feet, sated and ready for another day.
The interesting thing is– she know who feeds her. Anyone else can get up in my house before I do, and she will just lay there. She knows that I am the one who feeds her and she will normally wait for me. And, so, as irritating as it can be sometimes, I have somehow ended up as her “master” and I am the one that not only feeds her, but the one she follows everywhere. Literally. Whatever room I am in, I can be sure she is laying somewhere close by.
Her attachment to food and to the one who feeds her is pretty amazing. Her loyalty is not divided. Oh, she loves the others in this house very much and will play with them and even climb on their beds for an occasional night’s sleep (probably because she is not allowed to be on the bed in my room). But I am the one she follows. I am the one she trusts.
As I thought of all of this just this morning, it made me think of how hungry I should be for God’s Word. And how attached I should be to the God who provided it for me. Do I long to feed on God’s Word every morning –so much so that I can’t settle into my day before I have fed myself? Do I trust and follow, without hesitation, the God who provided that food for me?
Sadly, I know that it isn’t so. Oftentimes, I get started on my day and realize at the end of the day that I have never spent time in the Word. Or perhaps it was a day when I sat down with good intentions and then got interrupted. But, you know, Macy would never allow herself to be interrupted while eating. I have tried it. Even if I offer to pet her (her second favorite thing in the world), she will give a cursory glance at me and then turn her head back towards her food bowl.
Perhaps she knows what is important. Perhaps she knows that she needs to eat and have her tummy filled before she can even enjoy being petted. Who knows? But, we should know that as humans, shouldn’t we? We should know that we need to be filled with God’s Word before we can go on to live our day fully to the praise and glory of God. Otherwise, we are stumbling on in our own power, relying on our own strength.
If you happen to have a Lab, then you probably can relate to this post. If you have a different type of dog, then probably not. Our other dog, Belle, a 
small, white Cavachon, likes to eat, but not with any kind of passion. She will only get passionate about her food when she is really hungry.
I want to be like my Lab in my single-mindedness to fill my mind with God’s Word. I want to have an insatiable appetite and a one track mind each morning. And I want to lay at my Master’s feet the rest of the day, trusting in him implicitly to lead me through each moment.
Job 23:12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.
Psalm 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.