Taking Every Thought Captive
Last week Tyler turned 6 months old! To celebrate we took him in the swimming pool—one of his new-favorite things to do. The last few weeks he has been getting up on all fours and rocking forward and backward—no crawling yet though! It is such a joy to see him grow and develop. He’s even teething now too! Bobby has been teaching him how to give “fives” which is fun because he wants to do it to people if they hold their hand out. I notice a big change in the last month where Tyler is much more social and it’s pretty easy to get him smiling, talking and laughing. He also likes exploring things more, it seems that he’s always looking around for something to touch and wants to see what things taste like. He has yet to try any solid foods, but I’m sure that will be coming up this month.
Things with our youth group are going well. Bobby is teaching a series called “Back to School with Daniel” to get the students ready to return to school in the next few weeks. During the summer we do “Beach Day” every Wednesday and I have been blessed to have a girls small group for that each week. It takes time to get to know people and for people to feel comfortable with us shepherding this group, but I think we’re getting there.
Last Wednesday Bobby recapped his lesson from Sunday and then gave us some application-questions for small groups. The questions were from 2 Corinthians 10:3-5–
does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itseld up
against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ.”
As we discussed thought patterns that we need to get in order I realized how daunting this can seem. I was convicted of some thoughts I need to take into obedience and they can seem so huge, not even able to get in control. Sometimes I wonder if we don’t even bother trying because we know that we have strong habits and are too stubborn or lazy to really change. It can be overwhelming to start breaking habits and getting control of our thoughts, but it is worth the pain it may take to discipline ourselves. We know it isn’t better to live in disobedience and unfruitful for the Lord.
At our previous youth group we studied Cliff McManis’s book Christian Living Beyond Belief. In his chapter “Think!” Cliff makes it clear that it is vital that Christians know how to think properly–according to the Truth in God’s Word.
“The key to overcoming anxiety, fear, worry, fretting, and emotional
instability is to have the right priorities in our thought life; to be deliberate
thinkers. And the secret is to be other-oriented, not self-centered; to fix
our thoughts on God, others and our blessings–not our problems. That’s the
essence of mature Christian living.”
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August 21st, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Christa, I needed the reminder of your post to discipline and fix my thoughts on the Lord. The Lord used your words to encourage and challenge me tonight and refocus me on the goal of correct thinking. The quote from Cliff was awesome and reminded me to really seek to obey Philippians 4:4-8 with all my heart! Have fun at Hume with your adorable little boy!:)
- Kara
August 21st, 2006 at 9:02 pm
Christa, know something funny? When I was in high school there was a karaoke night at Hume ‘n Beans and I played guitar while my friend sang some cover song which I can’t remember now. Miss you guys! But hope you have a great week. Glad to see they have wifi!
August 21st, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Sis!
Great to see you in the blogosphere this week! (yay for Hume ‘n Beans) I’ll be praying for you guys this week!
August 22nd, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Hey Christa… I still haven’t had an email back from you. Meghan emailed me the other day as well. You must be keeping busy. Give the cute boy a kiss (I mean Tyler).
August 24th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Beware when starting solids!
Rice constipates, squash can make kids itch…but we’ve had good luck with green beans and are now working on peas. Judah loves them both!