Just a Thought?

Phillipians 4:4-9
"Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me -- put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

I have been contemplating these verses a lot lately. I have always liked this passage of scripture, but it has come to mean a great deal more to me since the loss of my baby, Parker, last year. I find myself relying on these words to help myself stay out of the grasp of depression, doubt and anxiety. They really are powerful words, quite the prescription! When I start feeling anxious, depressed or doubtful I come back to these words. I start thinking about what I am thinking about and how it is affecting me. Usually, when I feel that way and I come back to these words, I compare what is going though my head against what these verses say to think about and almost always whatever is going through my head does not meet any of that criteria, much less all of it! Is what I'm thinking true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy? No. So, I need to change the way I am thinking. Not only should what we think meet one or two of these standards, but all of them! If not, then we should run from those thoughts! Push them out of our minds and cling to the things that this passage speaks of. It is not an easy concept to grasp thoroughly, though it is quite straight forward. I think it is all too easy to let thoughts run rampant through our heads with no real awareness or control of them. Clearly that is not the way God wants us to think. He wants us to take control of our thought life just as with every other part of our lives. Have you thought about what you think about? I would challenge you to do so... does it meet God's standards of what you should be allowing into your mind? Truly, God must have our best in mind when giving us such straight forward advice.

Well, I don't know how eloquent or even understandable all of that was, but it has been on my mind and heart a lot lately, so I thought I would share :)