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What's Going Through Your Mind?
by Jerry Ousley There's a story about John who was driving home late one night. Needing to get home and the hour growing later and later John decided to take a short-cut through the country. It was no big deal; he had taken it many times before. But as his eyes grew heavier and heavier he didn't see the loose board lying in the road and he ran smack-dab over it. A few yards further down the road his tire went flat and the vehicle ground to a halt. That was all John needed A flat tire in the wee hours of the morning. He longed for sleep and didn't really want to have to deal with this right now, but the tire wasn't going to change itself. He climbed out of the driver's seat, unlocked the trunk and began getting the things he would need to change the tire. He had a spare thank goodness, and he found the tire tool but where was the jack? Then he remembered putting it in his wife's car about a month ago saying that he would feel better knowing that she had one and that he would pick up another one. You know what they say about good intentions . . . Anyway, John had forgotten about that and so there he was, stranded on that country road with no jack. It dawned on him that he had passed a farmhouse about a half a mile back up the road so he began walking there. As he did he got to thinking about the time. Certainly that farmer would have been in bed hours ago. It was in the middle of the night and he was going to have to wake that farmer up. Even though John knew absolutely nothing about farming he had it in his mind that farmers went to bed and got up with the chickens. He knew this farmer was not going to be happy with him at all. The longer he walked the more he thought about waking up that farmer. The more he thought about how angry that farmer was going to be the angrier he got himself. It wasn't his fault not completely anyway that he had a flat and no jack. Who knows, maybe that piece of wood with the nail in it fell off the back of that farmer's truck. By the time he reached the front door of the farmhouse all the dogs were barking. He was boiling mad. He knocked a few times and waited, again getting angrier by the minute. Finally he heard someone coming to the door and the porch light went on. The door creaked open and there stood the farmer in his bed clothes. John was so mad at the fact that this farmer was going to be mad at him that he simply said, "You can just keep your old jack!" And he huffed off leaving a bewildered farmer scratching his head, standing in the doorway in his night clothes wondering what that was all about. Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things." Sometimes we just think the worst about things. Instead of looking for the good all we can see is the bad. We live in a negative society and sometimes even for Christians it's just hard to not let it rub off on us. I've seen people start a new job with the best of intentions and a having a good positive attitude. After listening to all the gripe sessions that went on throughout the day, by the end of the day they had as bad an attitude as everyone else. It rubs off if we aren't careful. But Paul tells us to think on the good things; those things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely and have a good report. Think on those things that have virtue and are praiseworthy. These are the things to think on. If we do we won't be yelling at a farmer in the middle of the night telling him to keep his old jack. Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |