Faith-Filled Friday
Philippians 4:8:
Finally, ________, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is
anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.
Welcome to
Coffee Hour with Chicklitpower and Faith-Filled Fridays with Trench Classes
United! Grab whatever drink you have for your break, a journal for notes and
your strand of faith and hopefully you’ll leave with a couple knots tied and
your faith that much stronger.
Have you
ever caught yourself focusing on what’s wrong in your life, or in someone
else’s for that matter, or what’s wrong about another person and their actions,
especially as they pertain to you, instead of all that is right? Why does it
seem to be so much easier to focus on the wrong instead of the right?
I don’t know
about you but sometimes I can really be a negative Nelly. Funny, just writing
about this is taking me back to when my mom used to call me Pollyanna! There
were times she said it sarcastically – that was in our time of Exodus which was
when I was 12 all the way to 49 -- but I’ll never forget the time she said it
while she was in the hospital and I was coming to see her every day.
I was
telling her she had to get better so we could spend time together when she got
out, and she smiled the sweetest smile – something I had rarely seen – and
said, “You are such a Pollyanna.”
It caused me
to stop what I was doing and look at her to confirm she was really being
sweet…she was.
It wasn’t
until later that I looked it up and it made me weep and I do mean weep. My
tears turned on like a faucet full blast and humility washed me clean of all
the years where I had misunderstood her. See, the definition for a Pollyanna is
“an excessively cheerful or optimistic person”!
I never did
get to discuss that with her because she never did make it out of the hospital,
but, oh, how happy I was to be sad…for God had finally made right what was
wrong all those years.
See, all
those years I thought she was focusing on something negative about me which
kept her from me and it wasn’t that at all.
How many
times have we thought incredibly negative thoughts of someone just because of
what we think they’re thinking of us?
Coffee Hour Friend, God calls us to get our
focus on what is right about any of our circumstances, or about that person
we’re in conflict with, and get it off of what’s wrong. He calls us to meditate
on things that are true, noble and just – which may not describe the situation
or the difficult person you are dealing with but there is ONE who is all of
these things. He calls us to mediate on anything that is praiseworthy, on
things of any virtue.
This
God-breathed command spoken to us through Paul reminds us to quit picking apart
and looking for all that is wrong, for when we do focus on what is right, the
guarantee we have is we will be changed!
When we are
focusing on what’s wrong, we rarely have eyes to realize what’s right…and
what’s right usually far out-weighs what’s wrong, especially when we let go of
what’s wrong and let Him make it right!
Thoughtfully,
Kim-Evinda
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