My Happiness Habit: Hunting for Food for Thought

In my elementary school cafeteria there was a poster that proclaimed "You are what you eat!" I stared at my standard issue lunch and pictured myself becoming what I ate. There was "pig in a blanket, Beth", me, stretched out helpless, swaddled in soggy bread dough. Then I pictured "soggy canned green bean Beth", green dread locks sticking out of my head at every possible angle. I shuddered. It was a very spooky poster.

"You are what you think about" could be closer to the truth.  Greasy junk food for the brain is easy to find.  The moment I flip on the news, a smorgasbord of deceitful, dishonorable, unjust and impure things to think about is laid out for me to chew on. Finding nutritious, healthy and delicious food for my thoughts is more of a hunt.

Hunting for something pure to think about drew me to memories of my childhood. My mom suffered from environmental allergies. She was allergic to plastic countertops and floors, car exhaust and smog, sugar, and chemicals in food, among other things. A dose of diesel tainted air would level her for days. Things that were not pure made her severely, physically, ill.

When I was about 3 years old my parents moved out of the city and built a home in the mountains where Mama could live far most of the toxins that made her sick. I grew up in an environment that was full of purity. The air was clean, the crystal water came directly from deep underground to our tap.

I remember blindingly beautiful clear winter mornings after a snow. The whole world sparkled like diamonds. Majestic 14,000 foot Mount Evans presided over the landscape like a king.  I would go outside on my way to catch the school bus, gasp as the icy air hit my lungs, spread my arms wide and spin around in a little dance of joy, as though I could capture the beauty and save it in my heart.

I think heaven will be like that. All the evil and the toxins in this dark world will be removed and we will breathe clean air for the first time. It will be pure delight.  

Philippians 4:8 says "whatever is pure...think about these things."