An Avalanche

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things ~Philippians 4

The day started out beautifully, I had coffee and a chat with my daughter.  I even had the day off!  Sounds perfect right. It was, or at least it started out that way.  Then without warning, it hit, like a silent winter storm.  It all began with a simple, innocent thought.  What if my children do not love God?  That one thought cascaded into other thoughts and before I knew it it had started an avalanche of thoughts in my mind.  Suddenly, my happy and lighthearted mood was replaced with dark storm clouds of worry and fear.  It remained until God showed me what was concerning me was the product of my imagination.  I had no proof for any of the thoughts running free in my head.  Even IF I they were valid, there was nothing I could do about them anyway.  I had lost the battle for my bright sunny day. I had to regroup and take control of those wayward thoughts that Satan had planted there.  None of my ideas were right and pure, lovely or admirable.  I had let my good mood be covered with corrupt ideas like snow covers the ground.  Friends, are you, like me, plagued by negative thought?  Let’s take those thoughts captive.  If we do as Paul commands and think about these things, those positive and beautiful things, the storm of negative thinking will not gather.  No, it’s not easy to do, and tomorrow we may will struggle again but for today let there be sunshine in our heart.  We will leave the snow outside where it belongs.