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Heavenly-Mindedness
Today in church the pastor was preaching on Psalm 90:12. "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." He mentioned that one way to gain a heart of wisdom is to cultivate heavenly-mindedness. I really liked that term. Lately in my own life I have been feeling a need to cultivate some heavenly-mindedness and I felt that God was leading me to begin a blog that would be both an exercise and a testimony to God's work in my life.
So for the next 365 days I will take time to ponder the greatness of God, and post some of my thoughts on the matter here it is my hope and prayer both that this journal will create habit in my life of seeking the Lord and sharing His work in my life and will encourage you, my readers, to do the same.
I suppose I should give a word of introduction in case there are people reading these posts that do not know me. My name, or what I will go by on this site, is Rachel Kayelien. I am in my early 20's and will be getting married in November to both the love of my life and the man of my dreams. I count myself very blessed to find both those things in the one man God had set apart for me. I will refer to the people in my life simply by some kind of initial. My father is a law officer, and therefore I have to be mindful of things that I post on this wonderful thing called the internet. My mother is a teacher, and I am the oldest of four children. This means that I am a bit of an overachiever, and that I like to keep myself occupied with worthy projects. I have just graduated from a Christian college, and I am a writer and a musician, with my degree in Vocal Music Performance. Above all, I desire to find the presence of God in every moment of my life. At the risk of sounding trite I seek to live Coram Deo, or before the face of God.

I was reading through the rest of Psalm 90 today, as I was thinking over the sermon from this morning. Two verses that the minister had not mentioned caught my attention. Verse 14 reads, "O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." Something that I have struggled with for a few years is the idea that meeting God face to face is something that is best done in the early morning. Jesus set this example Himself with His habit of rising early to seek the face of His Father before He faced the rest of the day. I have noticed myself that the days I do devotions before I do anything else, I am much more joyful, thankful and grateful. I realize that this verse could also be interpreted as saying "Let us be satisfied with Thy mercy early (in our lives) that we may rejoice and be glad all (the rest of) our days." But I like the idea of making God the first thought of every day. I don't know that I will always be able to live up to that, but it is definitely a goal to make.
Verse 17 reads, "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it." The first part of that verse was what struck me. Normally, I do not think of the beauty of God as being something that needs to be upon me. The more I ponder the idea, the more I think that being overcome with the beauty of the Lord would be a good thing. How differently would I live my life if the most powerful thought I had in my day was how beautiful the Lord my God is? That should be the most powerful thought of my day, and yet it isn't. That shames me. I count myself a Christian and yet I must confess that worldly things often eclipse the beauty of my God in my thoughts...That is not something I am proud of, at all.

There is a line in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein that I have been rereading over the past few weeks that comes to mind right now. Gimli, the dwarf is leaving Lothlorien with the rest of the Company, and he is mourning the loss of the presence of the fair Lady Galadriel. He says as the boat he sits in slips out of that land, "Hence I shall call nothing fair, unless it be her gift to me." And through the rest of that saga, through two more thick volumes, Gimli calls nothing fair unless he calls it less fair than the Lady of the Wood. I know I am not so careful with my words, but I wonder what the outcome would be if we Christians held back words of absolute praise unless it was to praise God and His character and gifts? I think we would soon discover a love for His presence that may be lacking in our present lives. I challenge you, my readers to take special note of all the things you call fair or good this week and evaluate them before the Word of God. Keep a list if that makes it easier for you. Consider taking a day to call nothing good unless it is God or one of His rich gifts.

Praying for blessing on your journey to heaven.

Rachel Kayelien