When I was young and well into my twenties, I felt almost compelled to know WHY about almost everything. It drove many of my friends and family members quite made. God is never perturbed by this special drive in my character, however; as it appears He installed it. As Lady Gaga would say, "I was born this way."
I get interesting personal insights (little jewels you might say) about WHY God advised and even commanded us to do certain things. Here's one from Philippians 4:8 that might begin to remove some of the depression (Bah Hum Bug) from your holiday. Its tone is so direct that there's no way to get around the command in this passage.
I get interesting personal insights (little jewels you might say) about WHY God advised and even commanded us to do certain things. Here's one from Philippians 4:8 that might begin to remove some of the depression (Bah Hum Bug) from your holiday. Its tone is so direct that there's no way to get around the command in this passage.
In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good [decent, respectable, moral, virtuous, noble, worthy, enjoyable, pleasant, agreeable, able, accomplished, capable, competent, helpful, beneficial, sound, reliable, advantageous, useful] and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.
I've only embellished the first of the seven (interesting!) things God thought were necessary to fill my mind with. Frankly, if i read the list to my teenage son, he would probably say, "Duh, Mom!" He's young and life is easy. When life gets a little harder, it's no longer automatic for me to discipline my mind to stay out of the places that hold "bad-ness" . . . humiliation, loneliness, failure, fear, regret, sorrow, betrayal. Apparently, God knew that at least one rather rebellious daughter would need an actual order from her Abba Father to "take every thought captive" and to be intentional about focusing them on whatever (or whoever) meets the criteria listed above.
Let me confess, that I've never actually taken much time to be deliberate about this process; but since it was my assignment for the month, I decided to run each one of these out as high as they would take me . . . from lovely to more lovely to loveliest. From worthy to more worthy to most worthy. From reliable to more reliable to most reliable. You get the idea. Then I amplified each word in the list with a common thesaurus (see "good" above and the words bracketed after it) And I did the same for these words as a longer meditation.
I won't spoil the treasure hunt for you. Just try it and see where (or who) is takes you to. I guarantee you will be far from Bah Hum Bug when you arrive.
