You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalms 16:11 NKJV
https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/psa.16.11/10816
“Trouble’s ton or trouble’s an ounce or trouble is what you make of it.” Edmund Vance Cooke
Dr. Daniel Amen, renowned neurologist and psychiatrist and researcher, tells us to deal with the ANTS, the automatic negative thoughts
Trouble is what you make of it. Like a group of ants crawling in your food at a picnic, you can sit or move. Our home at times of Spring rains can get tiny ants. On a dry day, I will spray along the foundation walls where the brick has weep holes and we will put out deterrent to send them back to the wild. But they come back the next year and we do it again. ANTs need maintenance.
My high cedar trees are beautiful. Each year the bugs would cover them. We would pick them off. That is what I had been taught. Then one died from the attack. A yard company told me they could save the dead tree. A tree removal company said they could remove it. We gambled with the first option. The workers explained the bugs were nesting in the bark and would hatch each year. We need to kill them out at the bark, not pick them after they hatched. With right application of deterrent and fertilizer the dead tree came full and doubled in size. When they appear now, we immediately apply deterrent. Wisdom finds the right path not just a path.
The Lord shows me a path.
Show me Your ways, O Lord ; Teach me Your paths.
Psalms 25:4 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/psa.25.4.NKJV
Seek the path. Find the way that works. Deal with the ANTs. Study them and defeat them with alternative wisdom from His heart. Find someone who has walked this path and has a God-given solution and apply it as many times as necessary. Those buggy thoughts have a way of returning and need fresh application of deterrent.
The result is His presence and a place at His right hand. Those two results bring joy and pleasure that never ends. Joy and pleasure are pretty good ANTs deterrent. Not self pleasure, but deep and abiding confidence in persistent right action and right results.
Let’s pray:
Father, lead us. Show a path of joy and pleasure. Let us live in Your presence. Let us put You in front and us behind. Teach us to make trouble an ounce.
You are loved. We are family.
Phil, ttd
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