Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Verse reflections:  The word lovely is rarely used in our day to day conversations.  Maybe that makes it even more precious.  We need to think of ourselves as lovely creations.  This is a true, noble, right and pure statement because God made us.  We are to admire ourselves because we are reflections of God.  Today we will begin our day thanking God for making us lovely, making us in His image which is magnificent, excellent and praiseworthy.  If we begin our day with positive thoughts of ourselves, we will extend the beauty of those thoughts to others around us.  We will not put others down, we will look at others as extensions of God as well which means they are also lovely.  We will keep our minds on true, noble, right and pure thoughts.  We will praise others and recognize their excellence not their shortcomings.  And it all starts with our own loveliness.  Negative words and thoughts reflect more on us than the others we are speaking of.  So today, remember we ARE lovely.  We must feed ourselves lovely foods, God foods, pure foods, excellent foods.  We will focus on excellence in ourselves and others around us.

Prayer:  Father, I should start my day with this verse every day.  It is a verse that centers my soul better than any other verse.  It reminds me not to criticize myself or others.  It reminds me that I should only allow positive thoughts in.  It reminds me that I should always focus on You, on lovely thoughts.  When I start out with this foundation my entire day is different.  I am just a better person when I start my day with You.  Why I ever let myself get too busy to focus on You I don’t understand.  I don’t understand faith, I don’t understand Your power but oh my goodness it is so real.  Father, I am going to take this verse to a new angle and ask You to help me put the pure, lovely, excellent foods into my body even as I focus on pure, lovely and excellent attributes in myself and others.  Thank You, my lovely Father.