The Bible speaks in several places comparing our lives to gold (1 Peter 1:7, Zechariah 13:9, Job 23:10). Most often, this comparison refers to the unpleasant things in life we must go through. But the thing that has impressed me about gold is its malleability.
Gold is the most malleable of all metals. One ounce can be beaten into a sheet measuring 300 square feet. It can be drawn into thin wires. It can be melted and poured into molds to be given a new shape, forming to the circumstances surrounding it.
I have been thinking about the things we surround ourselves with. As the hours slip by, we are surrounded with influences. Always influences. Influences for good or for bad. We find our thought patterns are malleable, forming to the beauty and inspiration of nature or to the restlessness of a world on social media or the fears and worries of the news.
These are real things, all of them. We likely cannot keep from being touched by them in some form, but continual exposure does change one's mindset. And we are malleable.
We may not recognize the first few times our thoughts begin to change. Scrolling Pinterest doesn't seem so bad. But then we find ourselves comparing our creative ventures to the perfection we see there. Or when we plan the redecorating of our house and we cannot be happy unless it looks like the rooms we know exist in other people's houses.
Or we see all the glossy magazine images of women with perfect skin and hair and teeth. And we feel badly about ourselves, about the way God made us, because we don't look like all those perfect photos. And instead of being happy with who we are, we start coming up with ways to look better or feel better, trying to learn to smile like the women in the pictures.
Reading the news isn't bad. One ought not walk around ignorant of the world we live in. But suddenly we find that our phones are suggesting that we read stories about celebrities or politics or sports or conspiracies and we find ourselves checking more often for updates. We are anxious to hear the latest news on our chosen topics, more anxious than we are to read the latest Messenger or Daily Readings. And one day we find ourselves living in fear, forgetting to trust, underestimating the power of God.
For some of us, it is books that are the culprit. We find ourselves captivated with stories of people who are not Christians. We can't expect the author to conform completely to our ideals of purity and nonresistance. It isn't our fault the writer chose to use foul language. We tell ourselves we know better, we won't let false doctrine trip us up. We try to skip or skim, but it is still there, and we find to our dismay that these wrong ideas and bad words come back, unbidden, at the most inopportune times. Because we are malleable.
God created us to be malleable so that we could be molded to His will. In His perfect plan we, His precious children, are brought forth as gold through the fires of life, beautiful and shining, useful for His purpose. Yet Satan is not blind to our malleability. He likes to apply only a little heat, not too uncomfortable for us comfort-loving mortals, a slight pressure here, a wearing away there that we hardly notice, in order to conform us more to His way and less to God's. He's OK with taking his time. It's fine with him if our thoughts are turned only a bit at a time. He knows the end results will be in his favor.
May we ever be careful of the influences we allow in our lives, taking care that we are molded only to the shape of our Creator. Because He created us and has given us the beautiful gift of choice. We can choose to dwell more in nature, to read more in the Bible, to engage in deep conversations. Because we are malleable, and these influences will help us more than the ones for which our flesh has a natural attraction.
These are real things, all of them. We likely cannot keep from being touched by them in some form, but continual exposure does change one's mindset. And we are malleable.
We may not recognize the first few times our thoughts begin to change. Scrolling Pinterest doesn't seem so bad. But then we find ourselves comparing our creative ventures to the perfection we see there. Or when we plan the redecorating of our house and we cannot be happy unless it looks like the rooms we know exist in other people's houses.
Or we see all the glossy magazine images of women with perfect skin and hair and teeth. And we feel badly about ourselves, about the way God made us, because we don't look like all those perfect photos. And instead of being happy with who we are, we start coming up with ways to look better or feel better, trying to learn to smile like the women in the pictures.
Reading the news isn't bad. One ought not walk around ignorant of the world we live in. But suddenly we find that our phones are suggesting that we read stories about celebrities or politics or sports or conspiracies and we find ourselves checking more often for updates. We are anxious to hear the latest news on our chosen topics, more anxious than we are to read the latest Messenger or Daily Readings. And one day we find ourselves living in fear, forgetting to trust, underestimating the power of God.
For some of us, it is books that are the culprit. We find ourselves captivated with stories of people who are not Christians. We can't expect the author to conform completely to our ideals of purity and nonresistance. It isn't our fault the writer chose to use foul language. We tell ourselves we know better, we won't let false doctrine trip us up. We try to skip or skim, but it is still there, and we find to our dismay that these wrong ideas and bad words come back, unbidden, at the most inopportune times. Because we are malleable.
God created us to be malleable so that we could be molded to His will. In His perfect plan we, His precious children, are brought forth as gold through the fires of life, beautiful and shining, useful for His purpose. Yet Satan is not blind to our malleability. He likes to apply only a little heat, not too uncomfortable for us comfort-loving mortals, a slight pressure here, a wearing away there that we hardly notice, in order to conform us more to His way and less to God's. He's OK with taking his time. It's fine with him if our thoughts are turned only a bit at a time. He knows the end results will be in his favor.
May we ever be careful of the influences we allow in our lives, taking care that we are molded only to the shape of our Creator. Because He created us and has given us the beautiful gift of choice. We can choose to dwell more in nature, to read more in the Bible, to engage in deep conversations. Because we are malleable, and these influences will help us more than the ones for which our flesh has a natural attraction.
Someday the carefulness and self-denial will pay off, and we will be able to say, as Job: "My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." (Job 23:11-12)
Being malleable is not bad. The importance lies in what we allow ourselves to adapt to. Choose wisely.
