Our 9-pound Yorkie was barking frantically and digging furiously to get at a chipmunk that had scurried under a shed. She looked at me with an expression that seemed to say, "Can't you do something to help me catch it?" I didn't help her, but neither did I scold her. While I wish she could distinguish between rats and chipmunks, it's natural for her to go after any rodent. She is, after all, from a family of small terriers that were bred in Yorkshire, England, to kill rats. So she's living up to her family name.

God expects His "dear children" (Eph. 5:1), who have been delivered from spiritual darkness and made to be "light in the Lord" (v.8), to do what we were redeemed to do. He wants us to "walk in love, as Christ also has loved us" (v.2), and not to speak or live as unbelievers who have no share in God's eternal kingdom (vv.5-6).

Obviously, living as God's children is not a matter of instinct. We are challenged to remind ourselves daily of who we are by God's grace. Only as we do this consistently and become "imitators of God as dear children" can we have the joy of knowing that we please the Lord.

When we do what God saved us to do, we'll be living up to the family name.  — Herbert Vander Lugt