Thoughts on Thoughts

My old job kept my brain fully occupied. It wasn't unusual to be simultaneously talking to someone, remembering something that applied to the situation, reading something on my computer, clicking my way through screens...

My new job gives me more time to think. When I'm holding a sleeping Little Guy, or feeding him, or taking him on a walk, or folding his laundry, my brain can also do something else.

So I'm praying the Lord would guide my thoughts. Here are some scriptures I've been contemplating:

Do not be children in your thinking; be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.  - 1 Corinthians 14:20

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. - Philippians 4:8

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect. - Romans 12:2

We live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. - 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

I think the next step is to memorize these and speak them over my son. May his thinking be tuned to God's truth from an early age! 

 

Hello, Pluto!

The New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto today. 

This image is from yesterday:

Image Credit: NASA

Pluto is about 3.6 billion miles from the sun (40 times further away from the sun than Earth is). 

God put this out there in space a loooong time ago. We humans are just getting to see it clearly now. And it is just one of millions of objects like stars, galaxies, planets, nebulae, etc that God created and knows every detail about. How cool is that!?!

For more info: 

New York Times article

NASA article

Prayers for the 4th of July

This week I treated Little Guy to a medley of patriotic songs. He especially liked Mommy's silly dance to "America the Beautiful". 

Some of the lyrics reminded me how important it is to pray for our nation. We can be pessimistic about our country, our leadership, our people... just about everything. And we can all disagree with each other about every issue/hot button topic. But for those of us who are believers in the Lord (the same Lord of most of our founding fathers), let's all agree on one thing: to pray! 

"America, America, God shed His grace on thee! And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!

America, America, God mend thine every flaw! Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!" 

-"America the Beautiful" words by Katharine Lee Bates, music by Samuel A. Ward

 "God bless America, land that I love, stand beside her and guide her thru the night with a light from above."

-"God Bless America" by Irving Berlin 

 Another prayer I've been singing isn't from a USA-patriotic song. Rend Collective are from Ireland, but I don't think they'd have any objection to God moving mightily in the USA, too! 

"Build your kingdom here, let the darkness fear. Show your mighty hand, heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire, win this nation back. Change the atmosphere, build your kingdom here, we pray!"

-"Build Your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective 

Lord, we are so blessed to be free to worship you! Mend our every flaw, stand beside us and guide us, and heal our streets and land.