Last night was weird, although it seems I got enough sleep. And I woke at the regular hour. These nights do happen. Even to the best of us. Fight the pillow, the noise of the dogs barking, and a mind that doesn’t want to settle into rest.
Have you ever been there?
This morning, after a seemingly restless night, my morning routine that includes a new thought is less than perfectly experienced. A wreck on the freeway yesterday created a bottleneck that affected my little community with too much traffic. Lingering smoke from a fire that took the lives of three people just a few miles from us left a haze where you continually worry about the season of fires we are in.
Talk about distractions? They are plentiful. But life must be lived. No back-burner time in my schedule.
I’m sitting at my computer. Prayer, devotion, news, cereal, and a third cup of coffee is being enjoyed. I’ve even used my noise-canceling headset to drown out the background buzz. Focus. Pause. Think. Turn the mind faucet down and let the thoughts drip. Which one do I share? It’s easy to choose. But one thought normally burbles to the surface, and I find the right morning thought.
Some time back, I prayed and asked.
God, give me a fresh thought every morning.
He’s never let me down.
Not even today. But which one do I share?
The thoughts of an active mind are plenty
What’s worth pursuing? Sharing? Or chunking?
That’s my morning dilemma of more thoughts than you can shake a stick at.
What do I focus on?
I will often start a blog post with the thought.
Document it for future use, and then?
Start another blog post to polish
So it can be shared unapologetically.
How many times is the morning thought just for me?
More times than one can enumerate. (Yes. It’s a word.)
The longer the thought dwells under the spotlight
The easier it is to guess which one to share.
What’s your morning thought today?
Have you paid attention to the news?
Do you let others bend your mind to their report?
Or do you allow God to put focus on your morning?
That’s what I leave you with today.
It’s not about politics, wildfires, or anything entertaining.
It’s about corralling those wild distractions.
Put your mind to good use. There’s gold in those thoughts!
Matthew 6:25-34 NKJV
(Emphasis Mine)
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat
or what you will drink;
nor about your body,
what you will put on.
Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air,
for they neither sow nor reap
nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow:
they neither toil nor spin;
and yet I say to you that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying,
‘What shall we eat?’
or ‘What shall we drink?’
or ‘What shall we wear?’
For after all these things the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.