When I was in grade school, I was involved in a program similar to the Girl Scouts through my church. In "Missionettes" we studied various topics and earned badges for accomplishments in homemaking, cooking, camping, patriotism, etc. In addition to these life skills, we studied the Bible, and frequent memorization of long passages of Scripture. When I was in the 4th grade, I was struggling to remember the order of the "things" words in Philippians 4:8, which I was memorizing in the King James. For those who might not know the verse (or know it in this version), it reads, "Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, or if there be any praise, think on these things."
I tried and I tried to memorize this verse, but I kept jumbling the words up, and I was getting so frustrated that I was ready to throw my Bible (which is pretty close to blasphemy when you grow up in a pastor's home). My mom, however, came to the rescue, and came up with a mnemonic (for a definition of my fancy word, see here) for me which went something like this:
"The Jap log is very priceless I think."
How does this work? Let me try to demonstrate...
"THe" = True Honest
"JaP" = Just Pure
"LOG" = Lovely Of Good report
"Very" = Virtue
"Priceless" = Praise
"Think" = Think on these things
And there you have it. More than 20 years later, whenever anyone mentions Phil 4:8, I remember, "The Jap log is very priceless I think." And sometimes, like today, God whispers this line back to me whenever I get particularly whiny.
This morning on my way to work, I was complaining at God about some things that aren't going the way I think they should be going, and I simply heard, "The Jap log". It stopped me for a minute, and I've been mulling it over all day. If I'm supposed to think about what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy, wouldn't it serve me to find out what these things are? I don't have an exact answer for that quite yet (guess what I get to study!), but one thing I do know for sure...my amazing, loving, heavenly Father is all of those things. This means that when I am having a week or two like I have been having, and I can't seem to put my finger on what is true, honest, etc, I can lift up my eyes to heaven, and "think" on him. And you know what's really cool? He's thinking about us too!
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." ~Jer. 29:11
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