This video spoke to me because a lot of times I find myself challenging my emotions.  I foolishly challenged someone else early today to reject those feelings for the lies they feed.  A few hours later I found myself confronted with the same challenge.

Brother Andrew in a little booklet called Practicing the Presence of Christ, teaches that  when I have those feelings, I can tell God (who IS with me) Thank you for using Satan to remind me that these feelings/thoughts/ etc. are not reality and that you have covered this with your blood. When I reject those feelings and draw near to Him and PUT ON the Word (in song or reading out loud) it is like spiritual drano – 🙂

Years back a Navigator conference speaker, Carole Mayhall would say what will it matter in 20 years? 10? 5? to get us to realize that some little things that disturb us aren’t worth our time.  They are a trap from the enemy to get our focus off of pursuing Philippians 4:8 (whatever is good, pure, just, lovely, etc.)

When I came home from errands in a funk today, Ken recognized what was going on (the enemy was baiting me and I was sharing the junk with Ken) and he lovingly challenged me to get back on track. Actually he did not challenge me – he challenged US – he said what are we dealing with here – how are we going to handle it. His calm reaction made me stop and examine the situation, and I thought of a quote I like. It’s been attributed to a well-known author, Mary Engelbreit, Maya Angelou and several others.

— ‘If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. ‘

What’s going on in your life today?  Is there anything you can change?  If you cannot change it can you change the way you think about it?  Can you find anything in that situation that displays

whatever is true

whatever is honorable

whatever is just

whatever is pure

whatever is lovely

whatever is commendable

if there is any excellence

if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Has the enemy been harassing you too?  Are you trusting your feelings or trusting God? Is there something you have found to think differently about today?

I’d love to hear if you found some treasures in life’s challenging hikes!  Have you seen evidence of the Spirit’s presence?

What have you found that is true, honorable, just, pure lovely commendable, excellence, worthy of praise?