Fix Your Thoughts

So, my daughter started her senior year and my youngest started middle school today.

I'm doing fine. Not too emotional at the moment, even if it is by stuffing all of those emotions down so I don't have to deal with how I feel. You, know the healthy way, right?

I know I will continue to push these thoughts aside and not deal with the thought that this is the last year that she is in my house, for the majority of time. That this is her last school year, that she will be going off to college and living a life independent of me. Nope, I won't think or dwell on those things throughout the school year. I can't handle that emotionally. What I will do is think on all of the good things this entails. I will need to follow the sound advice of Philippians 4:8, which says, "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable."I will think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise and focus on the positive. This means that we get to do all of the fun senior stuff, we have the opportunity to plan for her future, we will get to be best friends, and I will have the blessed opportunity to see her become an independent, strong Christian woman and watch her faith flourish and grow as she matures in Christ. I will have done all that I could do and pray she takes what I have taught her about love and devotion to the Lord and carry it with her throughout her life.

I know this is a stepping stone to the next phase of her life where she will, prayerfully desire to do the Lord's will and not her own. I will watch from a distance as she makes decisions on her own, that I may or may not agree with. I pray that she will find her delight in the Lord which will lead her to the desires of her heart, but hope she remembers not to follow her own heart, because the heart is deceitful above all things.

With her graduating year being 2020, I suppose focusing on something, either positive or negative would be the only logical objective. So why not choose positive? Ironically, walking by faith and not by sight is the best option, especially when your vision of the future involves focusing your faith on an Omniscient God.

The flesh wants to focus on the here and now, but faith looks to a God who knows the future and holds it all in His hands. With this or any other milestones, trials, suffering, or any kind of sadness, I have to remember to not focus on those things but to fix my thoughts on the positive and my eyes on the author and perfecter of my faith.