We love to play games at our Christmas family gatherings. Every year it seems like we get obsessed with one game in particular. Last year it was Bananagrams. This year it was crossword puzzles. After several days of doing crossword puzzles, one kind of starts to see them everywhere. I look at our pets and see a three letter word beginning with the letter “C” and a three letter word ending in the letter “G.” Before Christmas I had a similar experience when I was making needle felted puppy for the first time. I spent so much time figuring out how to get the puppies body shaped correctly that one evening when someone brought up the subject of dogs my mind immediately went “the snout is longer than the forehead and the nose is twice the size of the eyes....”
It just goes to show: where we invest our time and our thoughts has a tremendous influence over how we view life. We think what we do and we do what we think. If we invest our time and thoughts in living the love of God, we will see life differently and we will behave differently. This does not mean that all we have to do is sit around and pray and read scripture and all will be well. (Here is a good article about why this is not necessarily helpful). Yet living according to the love of God changes the way we see the world. As we live the love of God, we will look at our neighbor in need and see a five letter name beginning with the letter “J.” Our anger and frustrations in life will be tempered by our experience of a five letter word ending in the letters “A-C-E.” Even the news, with all its evidence of divisiveness and injustice, will be transformed by a four letter word beginning with the letter “H.” Seeing the world in this way will in turn influence the way we choose to live our lives.
Some of you may be thinking that I am a four letter word beginning with the letter “N.” Give me a few days and I will get over my crossword obsession. May the love of God transform your thoughts and your actions and may you be blessed to be a blessing in the upcoming N_ _ Y _ A _!
In case you are not also crossword obsessed, the referenced words are as follows: CAT, DOG, JESUS, GRACE, HOPE, NUTS, NEW YEAR.
3 comments:
Ha! I'm right there with you, sister! Coming off the same obsession, this spiritual illustration is especially meaningful. Thanks!
Good message to remember. By the way, I thought the "n" word was "nerd".
Maybe it's the other way around. We think what we(can) do and we do what we think. In my Beth Moore study of David, David saw Bathsheba and thought, and then he did what he thought. In an inverse use of the phrase: It's the thought that counts!
Psalm 139 says: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts; see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Knowing myself, this should be my daily prayer! When my thoughts go astray, substitute this prayer. This would be a thought that really counted!
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