Regarding Animal Life

“A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal … “  (Proverbs 12:10a, NASB)

I have never had anyone come up to me and say “Wow, I just read Proverbs 12:10 and it has really changed my life.” As a matter of fact I've never even heard anyone mention Proverbs 12:10.

Of course, it could be a pretty easy verse to get around. It would be easy to think this only applies to those who have a lot of contact with animals in their daily lives, like ranchers, sheepherders, horse breeders, farmers, kennels and such. But then again, this verse, does say animal and not animals. It’s kind of like it is saying that every single animal is important to God, not just the different species of animals. That kind of makes it a single animal.

And it says a righteous man has regard, and not righteous men have regard. That kind of narrows it down again from the whole race of men to a single man. We could even simmer this verse down to a specific man and a specific animal - if we wanted to.

And which of us does not think poorly of the person who has starving animals, or the one who abuses animals. It is easy to make this verse apply in these situations..

But what if we make it even more personal, what if we apply it to ourselves personally? And what if the animal is our family pet, or our son’s pet or our daughter’s pet? Oh, I’m sure we don’t “abuse” the pet, or “starve” the pet. Maybe we just don’t really care for dogs or cats. Maybe we are just not a dog person or a cat person, or an animal lover for that matter. But a righteous man still cares about the welfare of his animal.

It comes down to an attitude. What is our mind set towards the family pet? How do we regard it? If we have a correct mindset we will realize that even the family pet falls under our stewardship. A righteous person has regard for the life of his animal. The Message Bible says:

“Good people are good to their animals.”