Truth from Pajama Drawstrings

I was eating breakfast yesterday morning and noticed some writing on the drawstring of my pajama bottoms. Since these are relatively new pajamas I hadn't taken notice of this before. "Laugh at the rules" was the first saying. Hmm...probably not the best adage to live by, but heck I have laughed at rules before especially when they were really, really stupid. The kind of rules that don't make sense and have been made just to have a rule for a rule sake.



The next saying was, "Color outside the lines." No harm there, it goes along with think outside the box and push the envelope. I "color outside the lines" in a lot of areas of my life, not to have a rebellious heart or out of mischief, but just because it makes life so very interesting. Roy and I had lunch with friends today after church. I was telling them about a friend of mine who has quirks, well we all have quirks.. and she admits those quirks at will. Her main quirks are related to driving. She likes to drive in a certain lane and at a certain speed. If there are parts of the freeway she doesn't like, she gets off and drives on the feeder road and enters back in where she likes to. That my friends is coloring outside the lines. Do I always understand the reasoning behind these quirks, well frankly no, but that is one of the ways she colors outside the lines. Her driving quirks have endeared her to me. We all express color outside the lines in all kinds of different ways.



"Let yourself daydream." I liked that one too. Sometimes people feel so guilty about daydreaming but not me. In fact daydreaming can be productive if you let it. Some of my most creative ideas come when I brush my teeth and I am totally daydreaming. Sometimes when people have gone on too long in conversation that isn't interesting, I warn them; if this doesn't get interesting in about two sentences I am so going to daydream while you talk. Guess that statement would fall under laugh at the rules and let yourself daydream.



But the next statement on the drawstring of my pj's, got my attention, "agree with your imagination." WHAT??????? I said WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You've got to be kidding me! Agree with my imagination? I am going to be honest with you, sometimes I don't like where my imagination goes and I have to bring it right back to the feet of Christ and ask forgiveness for my thoughts. Oh my goodness, when I think about how mad I used to get; do you know how many people would have possibly been maimed or killed if I agreed with my imagination? My imagination...has taken me...well, how can I say this... uh just think but don't agree with the song by Marvin Gay, Let's Get it On. My imagaination gone wild has told me I was going to die before I turned 23, that I would never have a good and happy life, that not having children would bring me untold unhappiness and misery, that I would never fit in, that I don't have any friends, and that I am not good at anything. My imagination has told me that I am awesome at things that I was really horrible at. I see someone mad or upset and I just let my imagination run away with me has said I caused it. It was all my fault when it really had nothing at all to do with me. I have imagined tragedies that have never happened and I have imagined honors that never were to come.



I am glad that I am not so naive to believe everything I read on the drawstrings of my pajamas, but there are those who are. When I played tennis I had a friend who was born in Egypt. She had this great accent and somehow when she said something it had more weight to it just because of the accent. One day she said something that was totally wrong and I realized just cause she had the accent didn't make it anymore true or believable even if the same words came from someone from deep east Texas with quite a few teeth missing.



So don't trust all those sayings on the drawstring of your pajamas, better yet, buy pjs with no sayings. Know this, it is the Word of God that speaks into our lives. Knowing that greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world is a very good start. Taking my thoughts captive and vain imaginations to the mercy seat of God is another great place to begin. OK, when I just wrote that I wrote taking my thighs captive...then of course I corrected that, but now that I think of it I should take my thighs captive and not in panty hose but with some exercise. This kind of thinking and imagination is why I never say to the enemy, 'get behind me Satan.' Why? I know that he is just going to tell me that those pants or dress make me look fat. I don't need his help back there... Oh for the record my imagination isn't lying to me when I know that it isn't the pants or dress...it is pure dee me.