“And now, pricey brothers and sisters, one remaining factor. Repair your ideas on what’s true, and honorable, and proper, and pure, and beautiful, and admirable. Take into consideration issues which are glorious and worthy of reward.” (Philippians 4:8, NLT)
The apostle Paul reminds us to feed our internal world with issues which are pretty. The phrase utilized by Paul for pretty within the authentic Greek language meant these issues which are pleasing and actually lovely.
You will need to word that he didn’t use the phrase “enticing.”
Paul was speaking in regards to the sort of advantage that makes an individual lovely.
You’ve met folks like that, haven’t you?
The primary time you met them, they could not have been bodily enticing by the world’s requirements, however the extra you bought to know them and noticed the advantage of who they’re, the extra they turned some of the lovely folks you’ve ever met. They even started to appear extra bodily enticing than while you first met them.
After which there’s the alternative. You met somebody for the primary time or noticed them from a distance, and bodily, they had been very enticing. However as you bought to know them, heard them, watched how they did life and interacted with folks, they turned much less and fewer enticing – even bodily – to your eyes.
Let me inform you about some of the lovely ladies I ever knew. However first, let me describe her in purely worldly phrases.
Once I first met her, she was outdated and wrinkled, almost blind. She solely had one eye ensuing from operating with a pair of scissors as a baby, tripping, after which the scissors piercing certainly one of her eyes. Her household was too poor to do something about it cosmetically.
She was obese.
She wore dentures.
She generally had issue remembering issues.
She didn’t have a reputation that exhibits up on hottest child names lists and doubtless by no means will (her identify was Pearla).
However now let me describe her when it comes to advantage.
She accepted me and cherished me from the second she met me. Grace dripped off of her. I by no means witnessed her feeling unhappy—she was all the time completely satisfied and joyful. I by no means heard her complain or be cross with anybody. I don’t recall seeing even a single frown or scowl on her face, solely a smile.
She talked about Jesus and going to Heaven quite a bit. She would additionally speak about what she realized in her day by day Bible readings in a devotional referred to as “The Higher Room” she used from her Methodist church. Generally she would get so enthusiastic about Jesus and Heaven that she would clap her fingers and nearly bounce off the sofa like a five-year-old being informed they had been going to Disneyworld.
I knew her as Grandma Gerald. She was my spouse Susan’s grandmother.
She is now together with her Jesus in Heaven, however I can inform you that to today, each time I consider her face or see an image of her face, I see some of the lovely ladies I’ve ever identified. And I can’t assist however smile and be crammed with such fondness for her.
Paul was proper. Eager about such issues – such folks – does the soul good. In the present day, possibly Pearla – somebody who was actually, actually pretty – could possibly be a kind of issues. Or possibly you’ve gotten somebody like her of your individual who involves thoughts. Both method, “repair your ideas.”
And convey them to thoughts.
James Emery White
