Chicken Coops Everywhere

A couple of days ago I asked my daughter how the chickens were getting along. She explained that they had to remove four chickens from the coop because they were gurgling, which is a sign of a respiratory infection. They didn’t want the other chickens to get infected, so they set up a separate coop for them.

As we talked, I remembered talking with a co-worker this week who told me she had 30 chickens. I asked: “How many acres do you live on?” She replied: “Zero acres! They’re in our backyard.” Then on a Facebook reel, I saw a friend building a coop in her backyard. And that made me think of my godson’s little sister who has chickens in their backyard.

I said to my daughter: “This totally sounds like when you buy a white car and suddenly everywhere you look are white cars.” I also thought about my niece, the attorney, who is soon moving to Texas. She said she knew it was a “Yes” from God to move to Texas when she kept seeing Texas license plates on cars in her hometown, Bismarck, North Dakota. Then, of all things, a new street sign was placed on a nearby street named “Texas Place”!

My brilliant daughter who studied and now mastered why we do what we do and think what we think, told me about findings by scientists and psychologists. Ever hear someone say "I'm a bundle of nerves"? Well, it's true. It seems that there is a bundle of nerves that sit in our brainstem. And its job is to control what incoming information we are aware of so that we behave a certain way. It is their job to notice incoming information and assimilate it.

One of the most amazing gifts that God has given us is our mind. The ability to learn, think, choose, and reason is the essence of what makes us human. While the ability to think makes us human, it goes deeper. Our thoughts become a reflection of who we really are. Our Creator put those abilities in us, and He speaks to it in various places all throughout His Word.

One of those verses is: “As a man (or woman) thinks in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) The thoughts of our hearts shape the reality of who we are. They shape our thinking which shapes our actions.

That’s why what we think about matters. If our day seems crummy because of a co-worker’s attitude or we’re sad about this or that, or we’re anxious about this or that, then we can let our thinking-filter siphon out the “crummy” stuff and replace it with “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens” kinds of stuff. It is up to us to think positive, beautiful, and God-sized thoughts (way beyond the raindrops and whiskers)!

Jesus said we will know a tree by its fruit. The fruit of the tree is simply a reflection of the root to which it is connected. We will never get an orange from an apple tree root. The core of who we are is evidenced by the thoughts or roots of our heart. That’s why what is on the inside is so much more important than what is on the outside. We can mask the outside to others, but, ultimately, what’s in our heart will reveal who we really are.

And, THAT, my friends, is why I am a fanatic about protecting our minds from the bad, gory, ugly and negative thoughts and filling our minds with “what is true, 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)

Norman Vincent Peale said: “Change your thoughts; change your world!” And, that’s what I’m going to do each day – thinking God’s way and putting a gate on my mind to keep out “stinkin’ thinkin’! And, instead about chickens so much, I think I'll focus on eagles!