WEDNESDAY’S WORD

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Happy Wednesday! 2016 is really here! Whew, is your mind filled like mine with wishes, desires of things you’d like to change about you, your life? Oh, every day is a new day and we don’t have to wait until New Year’s comes by again next year to be the change we want to see. Thanks for joining me for Wednesday’s Word and Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power. Grab your coffee, and your Strand of Faith, and let’s go tie some knots in our faith!

The other day I saw a post on Facebook that is a quote by Lao Tzu and it really caught my attention as it collided with the cry of my heart for this New Year, to stay in my moments that I might have more joy and a consistently thankful heart. Here’s the quote: “If you are depressed, you are living in the past; if you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present,” or as I say, in your moment!

Oh, this hit me right in the heart, especially because it was year-end and I was way too anxiety-ridden thinking of everything I had to do to get ready to meet and greet 2016! This quote was some fresh water on/in my soul, splashing truth into the lies, sending them back to where they came from: the pit of hell!

Here are some truths to accompany these wise words of Tzu:

We need to look back, not fall back, that we may recognize unhealthy tendencies and change our choices for we cannot change that which we don’t recognize as a problem.   Looking back can be one of the most valuable tools to change accompanied, of course, with the grace of God! It’s this other tense that got me, the one that says if you are anxious, then you are living in the future, in other words whatever you are doing, you are not really there, or at least all there! Are you catching what I’m throwing?

I don’t know about you, but this is where I struggle, staying in the moments because of all my responsibilities. But is that a crutch of an excuse? Is that just a pass to remain busy, and often too busy? Oh, if we were just given the perfect equation for balance in our lives, huh, some sort of recipe to follow that we would achieve that ability to consistently stay in the present so as to not be ripped off in the future.

I think I found it…yes, the answer to this dilemma!! But I must confess, it sounds easier than it is but it really is possible! I’ve already tried putting it into practice and I’m telling you, it works! See, this life is just temporary, a sort of practice run to learn how to dwell in eternity with the One whose perfect love will carry us there, so whatever we endeavor to do, wherever we put our most energy, whatever rents the most space in our head…must have eternal value!

Pouring truth into the mind is necessary to keep out the lies that keep us chasing after another thing to check off on our to-do list, or trying to control circumstances, situations or even worse, others. We must discipline the mind with spiritual truths which will then feed the soul so as to not be caught off balance like that of a double-minded, wobbly-legged weakling struggling to stay afloat grasping for air, for a future that is secure.

So as we enter into this new year, my prayer for you, for me is found in Isaiah 26:3: He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You…because he/she trusts in you!

Oh, that we would live in the moment, one moment at a time that we would recognize and learn to trust that your hand goes before us, protects all that is behind us, and provides for us all that we need.

Until next Wednesday,

Keeping my mind stayed on Him…

Evinda