God Thoughts

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Thank you for joining us today. If you would like more information about the ministry we lead at Clear View Retreat, please check us out at www.clearviewretreat.org.Today we wanna talk about an old saying that has been attributed to a number of different people, so we can’t give proper credit, but the saying goes,“Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.”In our walk with Christ, through our daily living, interacting with others, ourselves, and God, we should strive to be more Christ-like. Christ demonstrated the best relationships and perfect life for us as our model. It is through the process of sanctification and growth in love, that we can start to think like Christ. God tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:15 to “take every thought captive to obey Christ.”We start to realize that: Our first thoughts are often not our best thoughts, so, never let it rest until our first thoughts are God thoughts and those are best.When your child has disobeyed you deliberately for the 5th time that day… what are your first thoughts? what are your God thoughts?When your spouse has ignored you because of a fight from five days ago… what are your first thoughts? what are your God thoughts?When you are overwhelmed and tired and still something else needs to be done for a loved one… what are your first thoughts? what are your God thoughts?You see, Five Minute Families, if we don’t take the time to take our first thoughts captive as God tells us and then choose to meditate on His Word to decide how to move forward or how to respond, we often end up in defeat, irritation, or even condemnation. So many places of hurt and additional challenges will arise if we do not remember that while we are new creations when we have been saved by Christ, we are still on this earthly journey. Our flesh and natural first thoughts will still rear their ugly heads.One modern example of not giving over to first thoughts can be seen time and again in social media. Averaged across demographics over 80% of adults in the United States have a mobile device and at least half of those – and probably more if the numbers based out of the UK are an accurate reflection – are smartphones. That means that we all have social media at our fingertips. Think about social media and first thoughts versus God thoughts. Facebook asks us, “what’s one your mind?” But, should we always answer that question aloud to anyone but the Lord? We all have at least one friend who spouts off and overshares on social media, often deleting or regretting his or her post. Five minute families must choose to do better.One way we tried to deal with this in our home was by removing phones, tablets, or computers immediately if the boys got in trouble. Of course, the kids thought this was a punishment. However, that was not our motivation, although continued removal sometimes was necessary for discipline. Removal of their attachments to social media and friends via text and messaging was because we knew as adults their first thought might be to send a frustrated message to a friend or possibly post a rude comment online. Those immediate rants could then later open them up to continuing the hurt or negative situation even after the pain may have subsided or the situation may have been resolved.Setting our kids up for success in learning how to deal with first thoughts versus God thoughts takes thinking about each past and future potential situation and seeing how we can help them navigate those difficult moments. We must resolve to remind our families about God when we sit in our houses and when we walk by the way, and when we lie down and when we rise up.Please head over to our blog or facebook page to share with us your ideas about first thoughts versus God thoughts.We appreciate your letting us be a part of your morning, and we pray that God will fill you with hope as you see the riches of His greatness and glory. Keep finding those five minutes a day to pour into your loved ones. It matters because they matter to Him!