It is amazing to me how our minds work. God is pretty amazing. Quite breathtakingly, overwhelmingly, can't put -it into the right words, outright shock your socks off AMAZING! I have been doing a bible study by Beth Moore entitled Believing God which I highly recommend. She asks the tough question about what kind of God are we believing? So, therefore, I have been challenged not to minimize God as not simply amazing because really that doesn't even begin to describe the greatness of our God...and isn't that a wonderful thing?! Anyway, God's creative, ELOHIM powers that created our brains is well mind-boggling. Have you ever been sitting in church and had a thought come over you that is well straight from the pit of hell? How is it that things just seem to pop into our minds?
My mind struggle in addition to "taking every thought captive" (2 Cor. 10:5) is to "think on things that are true" (Phil. 4:8) Of course, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in my daughter's struggle as well. The other day after putting my daughter to bed, she called me back into her room. Usually this is some sort of ploy to avoid sleep, so I super-patient mom usually barge into her room filled with impatience. My daughter and I had been looking through her scrapbook from when she was a child. She saw the pictures of her early on in the hospital. She asked me why she had to be in the hospital. As I began to tell her the story and reflect on the goodness of God I began to cry. For those of you who don't know, my daughter had a blood infection that has a mortality rate of 50%. Furthermore, the 50% that survive have a very high percent chance of severe brain damage. My daughter not only survived, but I think God somehow enlarged and enhanced her brain in the process! Isn't it just like our God to far exceed and surpass our expectations or hopes! GOD is so good.
So after talking about this with my daughter, we cried and hugged and rejoiced together. What a gift to praise God with your child! There have been many times when I needed a prayer partner and my daughter volunteers. She has a very tender heart and spirit. So back to the bedtime scene. My daughter said to me, "You got that in my mind." My daughter was restless and could not sleep because she was dwelling on something in her mind. Her thoughts were keeping her awake. She was anxious. I told her, after praying, that once we pray about something we need to stop thinking about it. I once heard one of my favorite bible teachers call this problem of dwelling on troubles, "stinkin thinkin." I explained this to my daughter and of course we both laughed. "No more stinkin thinkin." I have heard her say that out loud to her dad. Hooray! She is getting the idea.
I love Philipipans 4:8 in the NLT, "Fix your thoughts on what is true..." My mom used to tell me when I was unruly and running around when I was not suppose to, to "get over here and park it." That is sort of what Paul says in this verse, "Stop letting your mind run around. Get it parked on what is true." Just this morning I had a chance to exercise this. I was feeling overwhelmed with my schedule and I had to make a call to a friend to reschedule a coffee date. I agonized over it because I allowed my mind to think on this think called the "what-ifs." What if she doesn't understand. What if she thinks I am wishy washy? What if she is offended? By the time I picked up the phone to call her I was so stressed out that I could hardly function to do anything else productive. I was stinkin thinkin. For all I know my friend didn't mind and was actually thankful for a little bit of freedom in her schedule too! Good grief.
I am thankful for my daughter's ability to be transparent. I am thankful that she shares her struggle with me. (I am not thankful that we share the same struggle though!) My prayer today is that I would be an example for my daughter. That I would park my thoughts on truth. A promise follows that command in Phillipians, "Then the God of peace will be with you." (vs 9) I want the God of peace to be with me. I want the God of peace to give my daughter rest during the night. It is that simple and it is that hard. Remind yourself as I do daily, (moment-ly...good word eh?) to park it on what is true and quit that thinkin that does nothing but stink to high heaven. I want to be the aroma of Christ, glorifying him with all of my being including my thouhts!
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