I was very excited when my friend Teddy told me about how the high school girls were studying the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. Each girl was given a fruit to study. They looked up the word in the dictionary and then in their Bibles. They were also given the challenge of applying what God had taught them about the word and then sharing it with all the youth group girls. Each week for the past few months, a different girl has shared after church on Sunday.
KC, who leads the 7th grade girls' small group thought those girls and my 8th-graders should join the fun. I agreed. So we decided to pick some words for them to study. Our words came from Philippians chapter 4.
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." - (Phl 4:8 NASB)
Their words are: true, honorable, right, etc. We even picked some synonyms that are used in other translations. I have challenged my girls to find out what God has to say about their words for months now, almost forgetting that I chose a word of my own: lovely.
According to this verse, I should be dwelling on lovely things. I haven't ever really thought about what the word lovely means before, but I can tell you that I don't often dwell on lovely things as I should. Feeling convicted, but also ready to be done with my less than lovely thoughts and to live in the fullness of what God has for me, I started a journey this week to discover loveliness...
As I began my Sunday drive to church, I tried to think of my own definition of lovely. I think God's creation is lovely. I think that what God has done for me is lovely, saving me, blessing me with family and friends, protecting me from heart ache I have seen others experience, bringing me through tough times of my own. That is lovely. I also think that I know some very lovely people: my niece, my parents, my sisters, my friends from Bible College, the wives of my pastors. Lovely, inside and out.
I was not wrong in my assessment of the loveliness in my life. But I realized when I looked deeper that I had missed a lot. Webster defines lovely as "delightful for beauty, harmony, or grace". I like that. I am to think on things that God would define as "delightful for beauty, harmony or grace."
This led me back to Scripture. I have a long list of things that God sees as lovely. Things He delights in. I want to delight in these things and dwell on them. Here are just of few of those things:
God’s dwelling places (Ps 84:1); His name (Ps 135:3); The feet of him who brings good news (Is 52:7); The Son of Man (Ez 33:32); Wisdom’s crown (Pr 4:8-9); Timely advice (Prov25:11); Songs of thanksgiving (Is 51:3); Gifts God gives His people (Ez 16:11,12,16); Sacrifice (Ez 16:19); Music (Amos 5:23).
God sees me as lovely, also. I know this because He calls many of His servants lovely, and the Bible refers to many women as lovely. God even refers to His people as outwardly lovely while they are in sin. However, there is a contrast between that loveliness and the loveliness that delights Him.
The Bible talks plainly about this issue in the book of Proverbs. A lovely home is pointless if the mistress is contentious (Pr 21:9; 25:24), and a lovely woman who lacks indiscretion is like a ring of gold in a pig’s snout (Pr 11:22)… I don’t want that. I don't want to be contentious or indiscreet. I want to be lovely in all ways. And that starts by thinking on lovely things.
My challenge (I know it's been awhile since I challenge my blog readers or myself), this week my challenge is to find something lovely to dwell on. When your thoughts begin to stray into less than lovely areas, seek out the loveliness of God and allow His Spirit to transform your mind into one that delights the Lord because it is full of beauty, harmony with God, and His grace.
