Verse of the Day - Colossians 3:2

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ~ Colossians 3:2 (NIV)

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(I memorized this verse as 'Set your mind on things eternal, not on things temporal', but I have no idea what translation that is...it's not KJV. I've quoted it often....hmm.)

My mom loves her dishes. You know, china and stuff you put in china hutches. When I was a teen, my dad bought a HUGE antique china hutch for my mom (hehe...I have dibs on that one when the time comes...:-), something that would hold all of her dishes. And no glass panels for showcasing, either. Are you kidding?!? That hutch is crammed so full of china, glass wear, serving pieces, etc. -- if it had glass panels, well....let's just say, that's why it doesn't have glass panels. It's not for showcasing the stuff inside. It's for storage.

I remember once when I was younger, that I did a bad thing. I got mad while setting the table and sort of accidentally broke one of my mom's cups. She really liked the cup, and I really didn't mean to go so far as to break it, but I did, and she was upset over it. I think I may have thrown today's verse at her, probably to make me feel better. Talk about wielding the Word for our own purposes, huh? Sheesh. But the fact is that she does hold onto her dish possessions quite tightly, and she knows this. It's kind of a regular reminder of today's verse when something in her kitchen gets broken, and she goes through a bit of heartache over it. Set your eyes on things eternal, Mom, not on things temporal...

Our earthly possessions can really get a grip on us, but the reality is that they are so fleeting -- moth and rust and robbers can turn our stuff into a junk heap or thin air (Matthew 6:19). Never mind hurricanes or angry teenagers (both can be so destructive). And that grip on stuff can easily take our focus away from God and His eternal plan and purpose, amen?

Or what about people? When people move in and out of our lives, it can devastate us. We can even have the audacity to say that when someone dies, they did it to us! As if they had a choice to have a heart attack or car accident. We can grieve way beyond what seems reasonable when we cling so tightly to what we have little-to-no control over. Is that healthy? Is that godly?

I have learned, through some difficult times, to hold things of this life loosely. To give God room to give and take away. Since He is the provider of all I have, He has the right to remove as He sees fit. To hold onto things or people with a possessive hand will cause me pain if/when God says it's time to move on/past it. So my life stance is to keep an open hand. I enjoy what God puts there, but I don't close my fingers around the gift. When He takes it away, I've not lost something, but enjoyed it while it was with me.

When Job lost everything -- I mean everything -- this is what he had to say:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." ~ Job 1:21 (NIV)

Whatever it is that you hold tightly to in this world, I pray you can release it to God. Let Him help you set your eyes on things above, not things of this earth. Allow yourself to grow up spiritually in life matters, so that His concerns about eternal things are what you cling to --

Love,
Joelene