Our Thoughts

"We are what we eat" is a popular expression of encouragement for us to provide good food for our physical bodies. The idea holds true also for our minds: We are what we read! And what we watch! And what we listen to! The mind's appetite is very much like the stomach's, which becomes accustomed to the diet we provide and will develop cravings for more of the same. Dwelling on whatever is pure, lovely, and right (Phil 4:8) develops a hunger and thirst to receive more of God's goodness and purity and holiness. "Garbage in; garbage out" is also a popular expression today. If we take in the garbage that our culture calls excellent, we develop a taste for that instead, and it pollutes our minds and souls.

The world offers us tantalizing and perhaps delicious-looking treats ... TV is a good example here. It broadcasts great educational programs but mixed in with the scholarly programming is a whole lot of junk. Some believers consider it okay to watch a show that violates Scriptural values, because it's "only entertainment." However, we must not forget that everything our minds ingest helps shape our views and values. Allowing incorrect teachings and sinful ideas ... entertainment ... into our thinking can eat away at our understanding of right and wrong. If we make a steady diet of these things, it can soften the hard edge we need to use to defend ourselves from Satan's attacks.

If any idea, action, or activity is not true or honorable ... that is, if it violates Scripture or injures relationships in any way ... you can be sure God is not in it. And if God is absent, you can be sure that Satan will be present. For he taints even the "neutral" circumstances and situations. Satan's mission is to draw our focus away from Christ. Once Satan has someone's attention, he'll keep presenting more tasty-looking "junk food" to keep that person occupied while slowly leading him further into depravity. What was once an occasional viewing becomes a deeply-ingrained habit.

Everything the mind can focus upon ... including entertainment (maybe especially entertainment), teachings, and philosophies ... is either Satan's garbage or the Lord's goodness. Believers are wise to notice the difference and feast only on the things of God.

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I love to read mystery books written in the first person account. I've probably read close to 100 mystery books over the years. There's nothing wrong in that at all. But, at the same time, I love to read spiritually educating books by various writers. But about a year ago I realized I have only so much time to read in any given day and I decided I needed to make a change. I still read a good mystery book every few months or so but my usual reading material is now 99% biblically-based, spiritually uplifting, and educational material. I figured that there was so much out there to read (just visit your local Christian bookstore!) if I did nothing but read the "good stuff" I'd be better off. I figured my leisure time was better spent reading Christian literature so I made a choice. I chose to limit my reading material. For me, I decided that was a better course of action. I've collected several devotionals over the years but had never really read them. Except for Oswald Chambers. So I placed, two with my Bible on my living room table, three by my bed, and three others in the bathroom. During the course of each day I go over all that material. My Bible and the three devotionals I have stacked on it, are used for my morning quiet time. And the ones by my bed are for just after I go to bed and before I turn out my lamp to go to sleep. The ones in the bathroom ... well I think they are self-explanatory. I don't get any special points for doing this. It doesn't make me any holier or better than I'd normally be. It's just that now I'm feeding my brain and heart on what I'd rather be reading anyway. Maybe you need to think about your habits too. I have been so encouraged by these devotionals. And to think that they were just lying in a bookshelf collecting dust before I chose to make the change. Now for the past 6 months or so, I've been enlightened and uplifted and encouraged. These precious books were being wasted and now I'm discovering the treasure inside them. Treasure I've had for years but didn't know it. That gives me a good feeling.

Another cold night for the foothills this morning. There was frost all over everything when I first got up this morning but we both had a great night's sleep. Neither one of us got cold because I put the electric blanket on our bed. I keep our bedroom as cold as we can stand it. We have a fan in the window right over my head and we can use it for "intake" or "exhaust." Only on the coldest, coldest nights will I turn it around for exhaust. The other 360 days it's set on intake. So our bedroom gets very cold in the winter. Call me weird but I think this is healthy. Neither of us has had a cold in several years and we both sleep much better. I've had it get so cold in our bedroom that I've had to pull the sheet up to cover my ear to protect it a little from the cold. As long as you keep the rest of your body warm, it's quite comfortable and I sleep so much better! I wake up more rested and ready to face the day. Guess I'm weird but if you've never slept in a cold room, give it a try and see if you don't wake up more rested and refreshed. I've slept this way for as long as I can remember. I can't sleep and wake up rested in a room without an open window. Anyway we did have frost this morning but it melted almost as soon as the sun hit it. I saw it outside and walked down the hall to tell Michael and by the time I walked back out to the living room, it was almost all melted off. That was fast so it couldn't have been a hard freeze. Now the leaves will really start turning. Seems like it takes a frost or two to stir some trees to begin turning color. The tall cottonwood trees down on the next street over started turning about a week and a half ago. I'm anxious to see the fall colors but I don't look forward to raking all the leaves! Thank God we have a small yard. The only problem is that in our small yard is a very big oak tree with thousands upon thousands of leaves! And most of them end up inside our yard.

I read a funny thing in someone's comment (on someone else's blog) that I thought I'd share. My friend's husband died (at 42, I believe) eight months ago and she's depressed. Right on. She's supposed to be. Her oldest daughter is 19 and she's depressed too. As she should be. Boo, the daughter, has been having sharp pains in her chest so my friend took her to the doctor and the doctor prescribed an antidepressant for Boo. Well my friend realized the difference between being depressed and depression [depressed is when something happens to make us feel sad and depression happens when there is no logical reason to be sad or depressed] and decided that Boo shouldn't take the pills. One of her readers wrote her this line: "If there had been prozac in biblical times, there'd be no Psalms." I thought that was really a cute line and that you might enjoy it if you've never heard it before like me.

Well, I wonder what God has in store for me today. I'm not going to wash my car unless the weather warms up. (I don't know what I'm going to do when winter really sets in. My Saturday car washes may end up being just a summer chore!) I'm not going to go out there and freeze my hands and feet, both of which get wet. If worse comes to worse I'll just hose it off and dry the windows and trim so it'll look like it's been washed. When I wash my car I always wash the cadillac too as it is parked out front and I don't want it to look abandoned. Our neighbors next door (we live in a duplex) have three or four old cars parked around their house and they are covered in dust and dirt and spiderwebs and leaves. They look horrible and I don't want our place to look like that. Boy! do I have a complaining spirit this morning or what?? Sorry about that. Anyway enough of this!!!

I'm ready for whatever the Lord wants to do in my life today. I'm almost afraid to say that because things can turn bad in an instant. I always have this gut-wrenching fear that one of my grandchildren will be in a car accident and I'll have to deal with that tragedy. I don't know how I'll be able to get through something like that. My youngest grandchild had a single car accident about a year ago and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. I was getting ready to go to a wedding and I got the phone call. I swung by the church on the way to the hospital to drop off the wedding gift and while I was walking across the parking lot to get in my car, the ambulance went by with lights and siren and it was the worst feeling in the world to know that my granddaughter was is that ambulance. Hurt. And I didn't know how hurt. God blessed us and she was basically uninjured. Lots of sore muscles the next day and a few cuts and bruises but she was okay. She had no injuries but her car was totaled. Both airbags had gone off. So she's not had a car since then but she can't drive now anyway because what caused the wreck in the first place was that she fainted while she was driving. So the DMV won't let her drive. And she has been good about not being able to drive. I think she realizes the severity of the problem. But she hasn't fainted since and she's under a doctor's care and should be able to get her driver's license back very soon.

I just finished reading a book titled First Service by Andrea Jaeger the ex-child tennis champion. It was a very good book. She and her friends are devout Christians and they established The Silver Lining Foundation for kids with cancer. What a great thing they are doing!! God is using them in powerful ways!!! It turned out to be a really great book. I bought it for $1 at the Dollar Tree. I always feel bad when I buy a good book at the Dollar store because I feel like the book must not have done very well on the market if it's now being sold for only a dollar a copy. I always check out the book section every time we go to the Dollar Tree. I've bought several good books there. I saw that Beth Moore has a new study book out on the apostle John. I saw it at WalMart for $18 and drooled. I wanted it so badly but this month there just didn't seem to be anything extra for things like books. Maybe next month. Of course by them WalMart will probably be out of them. We do almost all of our shopping at WalMart just like so many other people. But WalMart is really bad about having an item once and then never having it again. You buy something you really like and by the time you get back there to buy a bunch more, it's gone. Frustrating! I still have Beth Moore's book on David that needs to be read. I'm having a hard time getting started in that book. The book on the apostle Paul was wonderful. But David is kind of dragging in the beginning. And I started it so many months ago now that I'll have to start all over again but maybe that will be good. Maybe it will read better the next time. I've had that happen with books before. There aren't as many interruptions or I can concentrate better or something.

Well, I suppose I should stop rambling and get busy with my chores. I decided to write before finishing them. I got the bed made so I at least got started. Maybe I'll start Beth's book again today. M is watching football today but I think I can still read okay. I could hurry with my chores and then try it again. I still have to do my quiet time. I've yet to find a quiet place inside the house for it. It was too cold to go out this morning. Yesterday was the same way so I waited until mid afternoon and went out and read my devotionals and had my time with the Lord. Maybe I'll do the same today and see how that works. I need to find a place in the house though because the rains are going to start pretty soon and I'm not going to be able to go out onto the deck at all. I guess I'll probably try sitting on the bed for my quiet time. I go back there to pray as it is.

This hasn't been much of a blog and I apologize for it but it's the best I can do this morning. I started this early and I just looked at the time. Where does it go?!!! I'm a fairly fast typist. Must be a slow thinker, you think? Something eats up the time. I just feel spiritually hungry today for whatever reason. Probably because I finished that book last night. So I'll make a decision and pull out something to read after I get my chores done. I don't have a lot of chores to do on Saturday. Washing my car is the biggest chore. Shouldn't take me long at all to get them all done and then I can sit and concentrate.

Is anyone familiar with Malcolm Smith? He's a great Bible teacher. Originally from England he lives in San Antonio TX, and puts out wonderful teaching cassettes. I dug out a few of them yesterday and I thought I'd listen to them while I do my chores. Make good use of my cleaning time that way. I've had these tapes for almost 20 years and I think it's time to go through them all again. He's a wonderful speaker. He gets your full attention almost from the first word on. Just his accented voice is a plus for him. But he teaches the gospel and only the gospel. The only problem I have will be finding time to listen to them. I won't be able to listen just because I'm cleaning because M might be watching TV (like today's football) and I won't be able to play them. But I'll squeeze them in whenever I can. I'd listen to them in my car but my car has only a CD player. I used to listen to them when I drove to work years ago. And that worked out perfectly as it was about a 45-minute drive in. They kept me awake driving home too. Okay, I think I'll really stop now and get busy with things around the house. Wish I had more encouraging things to write about but this is just one of those blah days we all get occasionally. Take care and stay close to the Lord. Jesus is our reason for living. Thanks for reading. Until next time...