My daughter called me a couple days ago and informed me that one of our dogs was listless and wouldn’t eat, or even wag her tail. Something was obviously wrong with her.

A year and a half ago, we adopted a boxer named Lila. She’s a great dog, but being four years old at the time, we’ve had to re-train her a bit in order to fit into our household. She’s a smart dog, and she learns quick. But sometimes we still deal with old habits, like this week.

When my daughter called me, I told her to keep an eye on Lila, and if she acted sick, to take her outside. At lunch I headed home to find out that she was still miserable. I took her out for a walk, and she threw up several times while we were outside (I know, that’s gross).

I didn’t understand what was going on until that moment. Lila had just thrown up more birdseed than I could possibly imagine.

After some further searching, I discovered that Lila had somehow managed to gain access to our garage, where she had eaten a significant amount of birdseed for our outdoor feeders. I don’t know how much she ate, but it definitely wasn’t good for her. She had gotten into something that she shouldn’t have gotten into.

The truth is that I do the same thing all too often, and I’m sure you do too. We tend to get into things we shouldn’t, and they are not always healthy for us.

We have friendships or other relationships that are toxic. We find stuff on the internet that we shouldn’t be finding. We spend time reading or watching things that aren’t worth the time to watch or read. We eat things that aren’t healthy, even though we know we shouldn’t.

We get into things we shouldn’t get into. And this leads to sickness. Sometimes it is a physical illness. Other times it may be relational and emotional sickness. It could be a financial sickness. Or it could be a spiritual health issue.

When we fall into such things, whether it is a physical circumstance, or a spiritual one, such as sin, we get sick. And when we get sick, we need to address the issue.

First of all, we often need to see a doctor. If my blood pressure is acting up, a doctor can address that and regulate it. If my relationship with my wife gets rocky, a counselor can help. If my spiritual life is suffering, Jesus is waiting to help strengthen me.  After all, he came to heal the sick (Mark 2:17).

Second, we need to eliminate the cause of the problem. With my dog, it was as simple as moving the birdseed to a place she can’t get to it when she’s in the garage. In the case of my blood pressure, perhaps avoiding certain foods or exercising more can be helpful. When it comes to my computer, it means keeping a filter in place to guard my eyes and heart (I highly recommend Covenant Eyes).

Third, we move forward. My kids spent some of the evening arguing about who let Lila into the garage. Frankly, that doesn’t really matter. What matters now is preventing it from happening again. We let the mistakes go, forgive one another, and move ahead. We learned from our mistake, now our goal is to not make the same mistake again.

Having a sick dog is no fun. But my own health, and that of my family, whether physical, relational, or spiritual, is of greater concern, and not something to be taken lightly.

By the way, Lila is now fine. Once she purged all the birdseed from her system, she livened up and is back to her old self.

Question: How is your attention to your health? Are you watching for “sick dog” signs? You can leave a comment by clicking here.