Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

My dog Rossco (aka the most awesome dog ever!)

God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”  Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.- Genesis 17: 15-19

An individual shared this old saying with me about transition and change: “You can’t teach an old dog, new tricks”.  This person was shocked when I responded with “I think you can. It just depends on if that old dog and their trainer are willing to work at it.” If this statement were true, then the dog whisperer would be out of a job.

Let’s think about this. If we were to settle with this old saying and allow it to take root, then we would not have any new piano players at the age of 50. We would not have an artist who stepped away from their desk job at the age of 60 in order to hone a craft they felt brewing inside of them. We wouldn’t have a chance of gaining new followers of Jesus at the age of 40. Now, I am not saying these ages are equal to old dogs, but if we wanted to go there none of the ages listed are beyond a 9 year old dog (see you are still young).

God asked Sarai in her old age to have a child. Speaking from experience, raising a baby is hard at 31; I can’t imagine what it would be like for her. This would be a change and transition for her that she wasn’t ready for, but once God confronted her on her laughing, I think she was willing to give it a shot. God doesn’t settle for lame sayings like this one and neither should we!

We need to be willing and ready for our trainer to move and work in our lives. Our trainer is always ready and willing to do the work, but we have to be willing to be worked on. If we settle for limitations, then we have limited God’s work in us. He wants us to reach our full potential and sometimes that requires change or drastic maneuvers to move us, but if we battle back and say “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, be ready to be put down. The only dog that can’t learn is a dead one (My new, old saying). 

May we be excited to move and learn new things, no matter what our age, and allow God to teach us to be more than an “old dog”.