We’re still hanging on to the last days of warmth…

to golden sun…

and golden leaves falling out of the sky.

The earth…knowing it is in all of it’s glory…is throwing it’s beauty down like confetti…saying, “Look at me!  Celebrate the Lord’s incredible creativity!”

We attend each day like a parade…watching…picking up leaves like candy…marveling at their tranforming beauty.

Yesterday we meandered down a creek in the country in order to hold on a bit longer.  I found joy.  During a week that I might be tempted to find less joy, I found joy.  Not because I went on a walk in the country, but because my eyes were reminded to delight in the Lord.  To be in awe of Him.   To see a truth about Him.  That He is marvelously creative and has blessed us with infinite beauty all around.  That He has made US in His image and we can create too.

It’s easy to think upon glorious truths that encourage when surrounded by beauty.

What about in the everyday?

What would it look like if I filled my mind with truth offensively?

Not just in good moments or the lowliest moments…in reaction…but in a moment…any moment…filling the mind proactively.

I am thinking lately about how we are empowered to live the abundant Christian life by drawing upon and filling our minds with truth.  Truth about our heavenly Father and who we are in Christ.  Less and less it isn’t about what I DO or about what I GET, but about the truths about who I AM and who HE is.

We see it over and over in the bible.  We are told truth and THEN we are told God’s desire for us in how to live.  Even the ten commandments are precluded with God’s amazing truth:  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2).

The truths empower what we are called to…including joy.  We are not only called to joy but it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.  We should expect joy if He lives in us!

So why don’t I feel it some days, weeks, minutes?  I must be honest and say that when I don’t have joy, it is when I’m not filling my mind with the truth.

So what is a truth that you go to?  Do you have one or some?

Today… since I’m thinking about the last days of fall…I’m thinking too of Christ’s last moments.  The last time he met with his disciples.  I’m thinking of how important a person’s final words must be.  Like the earth in all of it’s glory…scattering confetti down on me.  These final words…requests…to his friends are worth holding onto and filling my mind with.

So I’m reading over John 13-17.  Contemplating Jesus’s most thoughtful words to his disciples and to his Father in prayer…on the night he was betrayed.

So many words to pour over and treasure…but a few stand out to me today as I fill my mind with truth.  In chapter 17, during his prayer to the Father, he says these words: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them as you loved me“ (John 17: 22-23).

The truth that was pointed out to me once and sticks with me to this day is in a small group of words in the mist of so many treasured words.  He loves his people as he loves Jesus.

How much does the Father love His Son?

If He loves His son as much as He loves you, how much does He love you?

He doens’t JUST accept us…but He loves us…to the same degree…that He loves Jesus.

Just one small piece of golden confetti to fill my mind with today…to hold onto and turn over and over in my mind…which will fill my heart with an unexplainable joy in any circumstance.

What about you…do you have a truth that you are holding onto today?  Please share!

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