Breathe Love

The other morning, I read this devotional by John North about the air that we are taking in. It was the coolest symbolism for referring to what influences our lives. He talked about whether the air that we were breathing was contaminating us or whether it was refreshing for us. After I really thought about it for a while, I got to really considering why I allow contaminated air in me. Now just to clarify, no, I am not actually referring to the air quality, I'll leave that up to the environmentalists. I'm referring to the influences that I allow to affect and act on my behalf.

The contaminated air... the stuff that gets me thinking negatively, the stuff that makes me feel so angry, the stuff that leads me to be discouraging to others.
The refreshing air... the sightings of beauty, the uplifting people in my life, the overwhelmingly encouraging words from the Lord.

Now, to enhance the mental image of breathing in the contaminated and refreshing air, I want to let you "consider the following." (: Let's talk about an obvious and popular topic, cigarettes. We have a choice to put that contaminated matter into our bodies, we have a choice to breathe in that smoke, knowing that it will do damage to our bodies. We also have the choice to not put that contaminated matter into our bodies, and to choose to breathe refreshing air, knowing that we won't be doing any damage to our bodies.

To wrap up all my rambling... we have a choice to allow or not allow contaminated air into our lives, and we have the opportunity to welcome or not welcome refreshing air. I for one, like refreshing air, there's nothing I love more than rolling down every window in my car in the springtime and just taking in that amazingly refreshing air. I want to welcome uplifting, positive, and encouraging things in my life, that refreshinga air. I also want to choose to not allow negativity, anger, and discouragement to linger in me and fill my lungs with that contaminating air. How do I do this though? I would like to propose this one word, which I believe is thrown around and has such a deeper meaning than what we take it to represent. Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14 says, "Do everything in love." If we use love in every circumstance, we can breath clearly. Just take some time today and think about how this is the answer, you might be surprised.