{"id":7483,"date":"2011-03-18T06:28:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T13:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromthefrontporch.com\/WPBlog\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2016-06-04T09:09:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-04T15:09:19","slug":"think-on-these-things-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/2011\/03\/think-on-these-things-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Think on these things"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sorrows of our earthly world have been receiving an enormous amount of “press”. I, and I imagine every one of you reading this post also have some private sorrow, hurt or worry that feels overwhelming. <\/p>\n

And, not that there is not a time for sadness or grief, but I believe that we are also called, by our Creator, to live with Joy and thankfulness, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. <\/p>\n

Father Tim, a character in Jan Karon’s Mitford series, often said to himself or to one of his parishioners: “Phillipians 4:13 for pete’s sake!”<\/p>\n

“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And earlier in Chapter 4:<\/p>\n

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving<\/strong>, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding<\/strong> will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”<\/em> Verses 5-7<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Powerful stuff. When I feel like it is impossible to not be anxious, I hear Father Tim’s voice in my head: “Phillipians 4:13 for pete’s sake!”<\/p>\n

And then a verse right smack dab in the middle of those above…<\/p>\n

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. […] And the God of peace will be with you.<\/strong>“<\/em> Verse 9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t need to look very far to find things that meet those conditions:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunshine through the trees. A driveway that might reappear soon. The promise of Spring evident in the light, the melting snow and the hint of new things coming to life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My boys.<\/p>\n

My choice on what to think on is these things: these simple, lovely, pure, excellent and praiseworthy things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sorrows of our earthly world have been receiving an enormous amount of “press”. I, and I imagine every one of you reading this post also have some private sorrow, hurt or worry that feels overwhelming. And, not that there is not a time for sadness or grief, but I believe that we are also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-porch-musings","category-spirituality"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7483"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16851,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483\/revisions\/16851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}