Thought of the Day !!

And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 

                                 Philippians 4:8 (NLT)

The pastor arrived early to church one Sunday morning as he always did.  But on this particular day someone had beat him there.  It was one of the members who needed a private audience with the pastor.  The member felt that the pastor needed to know that the Sunday School teacher was not using the "right" material, and therefore should be stopped.  It evidently didn't matter that the Sunday School class had almost doubled in size since the teacher had changed over.

As the pastor was making coffee for the early arriving parishioners, one of the ladies of the church came into the kitchen complaining about the mess that had been made over the weekend and the stain in the carpet that would "never" come out.  "Those kids just have to be taught to be more careful", she exclaimed.  The pastor shared  that he'd ask someone to bring in a steam cleaner and that the kids in question had been there for a youth retreat where several had claimed that they'd be in church this day.  The ladies response was that she hoped they'd behave.

On the way to Sunday School a man met the pastor and said that he felt the pastor really needed to read from the real Bible (evidently not the one he'd been using) and shorten his sermon.  Otherwise he was going to leave for another church that worshiped the right way, from the right bible and got out on time.

After Sunday School was over and the pastor had spent some time in his office praying, he headed for the sanctuary.  Before entering he was stopped yet again.  This time by the choir director.  The choir director told him not to expect much today out of the choir, and asked how he could be expected to bring about quality specials with people who couldn't even read music.

After the service was over some people went by the pastor praising God and thanking the pastor for bringing God's message.  One person shared some good news about her job.  Another asked for prayer as he was taking his daughter to have surgery later in the week.  Others simply smiled and went by.  

Then the first person the pastor had met that morning reminded the pastor to speak to the Sunday School teacher.  The lady from earlier complained about how distracting the newer kids had been.  The unhappy worshiper simply looked down at his watch, shaking his head and never said a word.  And the choir director ranted about every missed note...even though others had praised the choir for such a good job.

We can go through life positively or negatively.  We can affirm people or put them down.  We can fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise (as Paul listed).  Or we can fix our thoughts on more negative attributes.  Which of these will we choose?  And which are more Christ-like?

In the love of Christ,

greg