Taking Captive Every Thought for Christ

The day started off with a feeling of hope for the day ahead. I am thankful that God has brought many supportive TW journey companions into my life. What a blessing they are! I cracked open the TW book and read chapter 13 and was impacted by the reading....

And then...

Thing came crashing down!

First of all I will recount what my reading in TW was about and what hit me.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but
what I hate I do. Romans 7:15

William Well-Meaning identifies with this battle. He wakes up, ready
to start his day with his Bible, his TW book, and his journal. He prays, studies, reads, and after a wonderful time of fellowship and communion with the Lord, he heads off to work, having promised the Lord that today will be different. Today he will give his body to God and live for Him. Today he will eat 0 to 5, being fully convinced that this will honor the Lord. Then what? William Well-Meaning, before he knows it, finds himself snacking on one thing or another, ultimately realizing that he is walking in the flesh. The very thing he hates is what he finds himself doing. TW pg 132

The book moves on to outline the two different paths we often travel: the path of God's provision and the path of my performance. The above mentioned character, William Well-Meaning was travelling on the path of his performance, despite his good start to the day! My name could definitely replace William Well-Meaning's!

The point of the chapter is to walk moment by moment with God, observing and correcting, looking to God for that way out of temptation that He promises to provide (1 Cor. 10:13), taking every thought and making it obedient to Christ.

I love this paragraph:

God will not fail to keep His promise to provide you with a way out of
temptaion. He will continue to help you no matter how many times you cry out, 'Lord, I am sorry. I did it again.' No matter how
often you find yourself on your face before Him, He will always, always, always offer His hand, lift you up, embrace you, brush away your tears, cleanse you and give you a clean robe of righteousness. TW pg 134-135

After my early morning TW read I walked away with the following scripture resonating with me and challenging me...

...we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5

I thought, "I'm going to aim to take captive every thought for Christ today!" Do I sound like good old William here! I'm not sure I even prayed about it to tell you the truth!

Then the "test" came! My 6 year old daughter (who fits every characteristic of the "real" princess from the "princess and the pea" fairytale when it comes to clothing) was NOT ready in time for school.

Backing up a few years... Ever since she was a toddler she has been quite "picky" about everything she wears. Socks, underwear, pants, shirts, jackets, sweaters, hats, mitts, shoes, boots....you name the clothing item, she will CERTAINLY have had a problem with it! We have dealt with the problem over the years one step at at time, trying to help her move past these "princess" qualities:-) But we're back in a tight spot again, particularily with regard to pants...

So, this morning she was having trouble finding pants to wear, but didn't let me know. I was pretty sure she was all dressed and good to go. (In hindsight I should really have done a bit more investigating since her bedroom door was closed...my knock asking if everything was alright wasn't sufficient.) Anyways, she ended up NOT being ready & couldn't find clothes that felt comfortable.

And did I take that very moment captive for Christ???????

Did I even think about that verse that I had just read one hour before?????

NO!!!! How sad is that!

So, we proceeded to have a very heated exchange... I became "monster mommy" or in her words I was "mean" to her. I let my frustration just boil right over and spew out of my mouth.

Okay, now for the good stuff....which hit me on my morning walk/jog this morning (yes i actually got out to exercise after a month hiatus from exercise!).

I obviously and clearly did NOT take that above mentioned moment captive for Christ as I blew up and did not exhibit gentleness, love, self-control and patience to my daughter.

BUT the good news, that God drew to my attention this morning, is that I DID take the next moment captive for Him. The whole situation didn't become a waste, a complete failure...

I moved on to ask for forgiveness from my daughter. She said sorry to me for things I didn't even realize she had done in those heated moments. She actually said sorry for yelling at me...something I hadn't even pinpointed as one of the errors of the situation. We hugged. I said how much I loved her etc. etc. All that sweet mommy stuff. And then the best part is that we prayed together. We both asked God for forgiveness for our parts in things, very specific things as well. It was a beautiful moment that I know was God-glorifying. I could tell things were restored and made new and actually will be better then before. Thanks, Lord!

So the lesson I have learned from this situation, which had nothing to do with eating as you tell, is that maybe in one moment of a situation we may not have taken our thoughts captive for Christ....but we can always choose to observe, correct and take captive the NEXT moment's thoughts and actions and make them obedient to Christ as we lean on Him and look to Him. We just need to call out to Him and step onto the path of His provision. There is an EXIT in every situation, back onto the path of His provision.