What Are In Your Spaces?

​What we allow in our spaces has a tremendous influence over the victories or the failures we experience in our daily lives.

I have been attending Weight Watchers for a few years and one of the principles they encourage is to examine what (food) you have in your spaces.  If your pantries are full of chips and chocolate you will be finding the struggle is much greater to maintain healthy eating choices. We are encouraged to fill our spaces with those food items that fall into those healthy categories like whole grains, fruits and veggies. The struggle has been real for me as a mother of teenage sons (and all of their friends). My pantries have been stocked full for years with those tasty treats that boys, whose metabolism is faster than a speeding bullet, can enjoy in large quantities. The trouble is that my ears are attuned to the call of the Tasty Cake in the midnight hour. Interesting how the carrot sticks and celery do not call to me!

My spaces have gone through an overhaul over the past few years and I am happy to say that I did hit my lifetime goal for Weight Watchers…one choice at a time. You cannot eat what is not in your space!

Last week we were on a mission’s trip in Tinca, Romania where we were ministering to women and children in the Gypsy population. I witnessed poverty at a new level and am still processing this experience. We were not to drink the water in Tinca because our bodies are not used to the bacteria in their water and we  would find ourselves living with the porcelain chair in the bathroom. We were not able to eat the fruits and vegetables (washed in water) that my body is so accustomed to consuming. I had to drink so much more soda as the bottled water availability was greatly reduced. I just did not have as many healthy choices in my spaces.

Today I returned to Weight Watchers and the scale reflected what was in my spaces for 8 days! How true it is that what you fill your spaces with has a direct impact on the consequences in your life.

Philippians 4:8,9 reads, “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

If we would be diligent to take this scripture and challenge it against what we allow in our spaces (our conversations, our entertainment, our social media, what we read and think about) we might be surprised to find that we need to do some serious cleaning out/throwing out. So many times we struggle to walk in victory in areas like our thought life, our speech and our relationships. This struggle would greatly reduced if we removed anything that does not align itself with Philippians 4:8,9. On the flip side, as we fill our “pantries” with “foods” that are true, noble, right, admirable, excellent and praise worthy we will find that we experience victories much more consistently.

Look at the end of verse 9…the result of filling our spaces with God’s excellent choices…is PEACE.

And how we need His PEACE these days.

So, I ask you…
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What’s In Your Spaces?