Let's keep thinking about our upcoming theme together!
WHATEVER IS LOVELY
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and
my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14
In the Peter Pan
movie there’s a segment where the children are in their bedroom with Peter Pan,
wishing they could fly. “How do you do it?” John asks Peter.
Peter answers, “You
just think lovely, wonderful thoughts and they lift you up in the air.”
Lovely thoughts
won’t make you or your flip-flops airborne, but they are exactly what God
requires in Philippians 4:8. We are to think on whatever is lovely or
acceptable to God.
That was David’s
request when he prayed, may the words of
my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my
Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). Within Psalm 104 a similar plea is
made: May my meditation be pleasing to
him, as I rejoice in the LORD (v. 34).
For sacrifices to be
acceptable to God, specific requirements needed to be met. The priests needed
to be clean, the sacrifice needed to be without defect, and the person offering
the sacrifice needed to be sincere in repentance and worship.
David is approaching
God, offering His mind as a sacrifice to Him. He’s asking that his words – the
ones he speaks from his lips and the self-talk he speaks in his mind – meet
God’s requirements.
What kind of words
do you speak aloud and to yourself?
In her book, Silver Boxes: The Gift of Encouragement, Florence
Littauer writes about a delightful children’s sermon that unfolds based on
Ephesians 4:29, Do not let any
unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building
others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
As she spoke to the
children about how our words should minister grace and be presents to one
another, a “precious little girl stood up, stepped into the aisle, and said
loudly to the whole congregation, ‘What she means is that our words should be like little silver boxes with bows on
top.’”
What a beautiful
picture of what our words should be to each other AND a lovely illustration of
what our words should be when we talk to ourselves! As God tests our self-talk,
may He find that they’re lovely gifts fit for a King.
Think on it: Would you describe the words you say to
yourself and about yourself as lovely? If not, make Psalm 19:14 your prayer
today.
Wise,
truthful words are never harsh or unkind. They are gracious. Even the hard
truths we speak to ourselves should not be condemning.
Jennifer Rothschild
grace and peace,
Lenae
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