Brrr...it is cold in NC!
It has skipped Fall here in our new home state of North Carolina! We were sweating and wearing shorts and flip-flops on Saturday and now I'm ready to turn up the heat. I love Fall-leaves beginning to change color, all the smells of apple, hot chocolate, cider, and pumpkin. Yummy! I also enjoy cooking for Fall-I mean who doesn't enjoy throwing a few ingredients in the crock-pot around breakfast and smelling it all day knowing that dinner is done. I enjoy these things, but one of my favorite things about Fall is dragging out the tote labeled "Fall clothes." Sweat shirts, fleece hoodies, sweaters, jeans and boots...it is now officially that time at the Glandon house. As I sat to do my Bible study time this morning, Philippians led me to study about the renewing of my mind. I studied the importance of not being anxious but making your request (those things that make us anxious) known to God and receiving His peace. I have memorized this verse and Matthew 6:25-33 over the past year. They have been written and heavily underlined in my Bible, on my calendar, posted on my bathroom mirror and on the dash of my car. I know what God's Word says about anxious thoughts, but today as I studied, it felt like a little light bulb went off in my mind and hidden deep inside my heart. The very end of Philippians 4:7 says this..."He will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus." I have very intentionally made my "request" known to God during moments of anxiety & fear and I have felt His peace over situations, but I can't say that I have asked Him to guard my heart and mind. Of course it sounds great when you pray and ask Him to guard your heart and mind, but I had to do some hard looking and ask myself if I really ask Him to guard me? In a moment of that anxiousness...for example when Hannah walked into her new school for the first time and we didn't know anyone except for our sweet friend Evelyn and her teacher. Understand with me a second. I had just left a school in Knoxville where I knew all the office staff by name and the college team they cheered for, which teacher was getting ready to be a grandmother or retire, the church they attended, the mom- who even was a little annoying over her constant asking me to be on the year book staff, moms with who our kids had been Kindergarten classmates...you get the point...I was very comfortable there. So as I dropped my little 7 year old baby girl at the door of her new school, this momma was feeling very anxious. Yes we had talked and prayed and prepared ourselves for this new journey, but I sadly don't remember asking God to guard my heart and mind. So...as I sat this morning I thought how much more sense His peace would make and how less stressful my life would be if I simply asked Him to guard me. When those anxious thoughts come, I need to ask Him to guard me from allowing my mind to wander and get myself worked up. I know its hard...I struggle daily with this, but God is continuing to teach me what it means to trust Him and simply be honest with Him. The best way to guard my heart and mind is to do exactly what the Scriptures following this command says to do..."You'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not to curse." (Phil. 4:8-9) I am to think the best and not the worst in stressful times. Not only ask Him to guard my mind, but ask Him to renew it. Romans 12:1-2 and Ephesians 4:22-24 are great reminders of allowing God to control and renew my mind as He guards it. I have to be intentional in guarding what goes in and dying to my old ways of thinking. In a way...it is like packing up the old summer clothes and getting out the new fall tote. A great reminder for me as I clean out my closet and get out the "new." I have to put that old way of thinking behind me and daily put on or clothe myself with the new way of thinking-His way of thinking. So friends, as you start a new season and you drag out those totes..ask Him to give you a new way of thinking and guard your heart and mind during stressful times (remember holidays are just around the corner). And if anyone would be willing to teach me how to wear and tie one of those cute scarfs...if would be greatly appreciated!
Our family
