Thank You God For Carrot Cake

On facebook a couple of times this week, my sister posted up what was at the top of her 'gratitude list' for that day.  Things like her son's Lego toy not destroying the washing machine, and being able to spend time with her hubby. This got me thinking over the past week could I have written a daily gratitude list?

And all my mind can focus on is a thoughtless comment that was made to me earlier in the week. 

How easy it is for me to stay in that place of hurt and bitterness and resentment and anger, and how difficult it is for me to recall the great things. Like, coming away from my guitar lesson with a plate of carrot cake, or spending all day with my best mates shopping for retro outfits for a party, or selling our clapped out banger of a car for the right amount we needed to pay for the new granny-mobile we just bought.  All these things happened this week which were great!

1 Thessalonians 5:15-18 (NIV) ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Whatever has happened this week to pee you off, don't retaliate.  Do something good for someone else. Be happy, happy, happy! And keep praying. Continually give thanks to God, this is what He wants you to do.

Oh Paul, you make it sound so easy.  

It's much more fun to get mad and have a rant, it's more interesting to listen to someone tell you who's annoyed them, than who gave them carrot cake, or so the enemy would have you believe. 

In truth it drains you of energy.  It tires the people around you who show compassion, but would probably rather you just shut up and offered them a piece of carrot cake.  It propels the small lies you already believe about yourself into gigantic stories of fairytale proportion, and the Devil wins.

I am going to consciously pray to erase the negative memories of the week and obviously I'm going to go and have a piece of carrot cake.

What's on your 'gratitude list' for this week?

Keep, Bin, Give Away

We've all done it.  Attempted to have a mass clearout, either of a child's bedroom, the kitchen cupboards or the garage.  You don't really know where to start, you know it's a terrible mess and has to be dealt with, but how to tackle it?

While doing this with my kids the other week, I realised I usually tackle this job with 3 boxes 'keep' 'bin' and 'give away'.

I have tried to apply the same logic to my personal thinking. Am I 'keeping' the right things in my mind?  Am I able to 'bin' the lies of the Enemy?  And am I able to 'give away' to God the things I need help with? 

If I don't apply this logic to myself I run the risk of ending up in a terrible mess just like the rooms of our house! (Thank goodness no-one can visit my brain unannounced!)

A thought to 'keep'. God loves you and is pleased with you, and if He thinks you are special, why would you doubt that? He tells us in

Zephaniah 3:17 
The LORD your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”

For the 'bin'. "I'm worthless, I'm useless, I can't do it",  I have said, and sometimes still do find myself saying those things, it's a hard one to get away from and the more the Enemy realises we're believing it, the tighter his grip on our mind will get. They are lies that we should not believe. We should remember Jesus' warning to the religious leaders about Satan.

John 8:44
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Finally, don't try to solve your own problems, turn to God, He continually asks us to do this.  He is our Father, of course we should go to Him 'give away' your problems to Him today.

Psalm 55:22

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. 1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

This is not an easy excercise to do but neither is tackling cleaning a room, unless you have an o.c.d. condition in which case you need a whole other website.