Tag Archives: Philippians 4:8

Stop the Spiral

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spiral stain glassThis past month, I began Jennie Allen’s study in Philippians, Get Out of Your Head, with a group at my church. I’m only in the third session, but so far, I’ve learned something new about how our minds can spiral either downward or upward, and that we have the ability to choose which way they go.

Jennie talks about spirals going either up toward God, or down toward the thing we’re fixating on. She says that whatever we find our self most fixed on is the thing we are living for. She suggests we consider how what we spend the most time thinking about affects our friendships, family, work, time, and joy, compared to how thinking about Christ affects them.

She points out that in spirals we begin with an emotion. Our emotions trigger a thought. Thoughts lead to behaviors. Behaviors affect relationships. And behaviors have consequences.

Between emotion and thought, however, we each have the choice of whether our thoughts will spiral down or up. A downward spiral focuses on self. An upward spiral focuses on God.

An upward spiral begins with surrendering our thoughts to God and remembering we belong to him. When we choose thoughts that conform to the mind of Christ, we start to see better behaviors, relationships, and consequences.

Filling our minds with the truth of who God is, who he says we are, and holding those truths up against the thoughts that could spiral us downward, is one way to change the spiral’s direction.

The enemy’s strategy is to flood our thoughts with visions of all that is wrong in this broken, fallen world to the point we don’t even think to look for the positive anymore. We get cynical. But God has an abundance of joy and delight for us, and we’re missing it with arms crossed. Jennie Allen

The first step in changing a downward spiral’s direction is to recognize it, then interrupt it. Do you find that difficult to do?

Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the subject. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

And now, brothers, as I close this letter, let me say this one more thing: Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about. Philippians 4:8 (TLB)

You can find my February Inspire a Fire post here. Please stop by and read it.

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Ignore the Noise

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By Sandy Kirby Quandt

Eight o’clock in the morning. Sitting in the backyard with a hot cup of tea. Gentle breeze rustles the leaves causing them to dance. Birdsong fills the air.

Perfect.

Until the chainsaw roars to life and the wood chipper chews into the limbs being cut down in the yard next door.

I have a choice. Continue to stay outdoors, or retreat inside. I choose to stay.

But why? you might ask.

I’m not really sure. Maybe because the beauty of God’s creation outweighs the distraction of the world.

We live in a world full of noisy distractions, do we not?

A world filled with divisive debate, opposing views, and personal attacks.

Loud and annoying.

Just like the chain saw and chipper.

Maybe I stay in my backyard full of dappled shade under blue skies and gentle breeze because I refuse to retreat inside, knowing the noise is filtering through the walls of the house.

Perhaps I’ll stay until I can’t stand the stench of gasoline and noisy ruckus any longer.

While I sit, God sends a stronger breeze that pushes away the stench. A breeze which captures the tubes of the wind chime and provides something besides noise if I choose to listen.

I hear the faint chirp of a cardinal. I watch a juvenile squirrel navigate the crepe myrtle. And I am glad I remained.

All of this led me to consider how noise and strife descends on our lives daily, stealing our serenity and peace.

We can retreat, and miss the joy God gives amid the chain saws and wood chippers of life, or we can put on noise cancelling headphones – which I eventually did – ignore the noise and focus on the good.

By the end of an hour the noise ceased, and calm once again prevailed.

Until the next time.

What do you do when the noise and strife of the world invades your peace?

Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the subject. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

And now, brothers, as I close this letter, let me say this one more thing: Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about. Philippians 4:8 (NLT) 

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Sunday Scriptures Think on Those Things

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by Sandy Kirby Quandt

The Apostle Paul told us in Philippians 4:8 to think on those things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. We are to think about those things that are excellent, and worthy of praise.

I try very hard to do that, but you know what? I don’t always succeed.

When I watch the news or read the newspaper some days, my thoughts dwell on what I’m hearing or seeing, and lately, when I think on those things they are anything but true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. More times than not, those things are definitely not excellent and worthy of praise. Just glancing at the pictures that accompany many Yahoo “news” headlines make me question where we’re headed as a society. Definitely not pure.

The times I allow the news to divert my thoughts, I find my attitudes and behaviors are influenced, and I go off in the wrong direction. I replay what I’ve heard over and over and over with no good outcome. If I let them, and I often do, these replays keep me awake at night, and what’s the good in that?

At those times when I dwell on the things of the world instead of those things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, I’ve thrown the door wide open for Satan to get into my thoughts and rob my peace.

How about you? What do you do to think on those things Paul tells us in Philippians to think on?

Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the subject. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8 (NLT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Sunday Scriptures — Cutting Out Empty Calories

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Isaiahby Sandy Kirby Quandt

For most of us cutting out empty calories is difficult. It’s also difficult to lose the extra pounds those calories add. Often, we falsely believing it will be easy to drop the additional weight and don’t pay attention to how much junk we put into ourselves.

The same can be said about the empty things we fill our lives with. We believe we’ll be able to cut back on the unnecessary things without any effort, but that isn’t always the case.

Recently I watched a local news report about a woman who lost an amazing amount of weight in a relatively short amount of time. Seems she limited her caloric intake to 500 calories every other day, didn’t go crazy overboard on the other days, and kept her calorie intake moderate.

Well, I decided to give a moderated version of this diet a go. I decided to limit myself  to 1,000 calories three days a week. It’s extremely difficult on those limited calorie days, that’s for sure, and I know I don’t always stick to 1,000, but I do try not to add any sugar those days.

Full disclosure … this limited calorie thing went right out the proverbial window the week I spent in North Carolina attending the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Conference; as evidenced by the pounds I re-gained. What did I expect eating bacon, eggs, grits, and potatoes every single morning? Oy, vey.

Once the numbers on my scale started to go down I told myself cutting out the sugar, chips, and soft drinks three times a week was worth it. I also realized just how insignificant losing five pounds was. I needed to lose more than that to make any noticeable difference.

As I limited my caloric intake and got rid of some of the empty calories that provided no nutritional value, I considered what happens when we gorge ourselves on the empty calories we take into our minds either through what we read, watch, or listen to during our day.

If we stuff ourselves with meaningless things that have little or no real value, we leave little room for the things that are valuable. Things that are noble, true, pure … things Paul tells us to think about.

It may be difficult to limit the empty caloric things we fill our days with, but perhaps we could start small. Perhaps we could set a limit on how much time we spend watching TV or surfing the web or spent on social media and see what happens. It might surprise us.

Do you find it difficult to limit the time you spend watching TV, surfing the web, or on social media?

Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the subject. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

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 4:8 (NIV)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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