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Failure

             May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

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)

Sometimes, I think when we read these words, we’re expecting God to change so that whatever comes out of our mouths or wanders through our minds is acceptable to God. After all, it’s just part of who we are. Perhaps some of us hope that God will miraculously make the unacceptable words and meditations go away. What it really means, of course, is that our goal is to learn to speak and think in a manner pleasing to God. As yesterday’s verses (quoted again above) point out, what we should be talking about and meditating on is whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and/or praiseworthy. It goes back to the old saying, “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything.”

It's much later in the day, and I have to admit that much of it has not involved words or meditations that God is likely to have found pleasing. I had the day off, so I set it aside to get lots of cooking done. I’m supposed to take a snack for 50 to a meeting tomorrow, so mini-muffins were on the to-do list, along with soup and dog food. Lots of dishes were done over and over again. All in all, I probably did better than I deserve, but one of the batches of mini-muffins would not come out of the pan, so it’s now 5 pm and I’m only halfway there on the muffins. Between the dishes and the recipe failure, I’m frustrated. In fact, I’m frustrated enough that I went to the store and bought a mix. But the point is, my meditations aren’t what I think would please God.

          But God is still God, and He is good. A solution was found. God would still be God and good even if a solution weren’t found. Things are almost ready for tomorrow. The crisis has passed, and as frustrating as it was, it wasn’t as devastating as it seems to me it would have been in the past. God has brought me this far, even if I’m still not “pretty.”

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