Self-Awareness and Mind Food

"Therefore we do not lose heart.  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day." 2 Corinthians 4:16

Boy, do I need this reminder.  Those of us who trust in Christ are being renewed day by day.  Let us be encouraged by it, and not forget this truth.  

As I increase in self-awareness, I must be sure to learn and apply what I know about myself without being what Cheri Struble calls "being morbidly introspective."  I was reminded about this just today, as I have dealt with my overactive thoughts the past few days.  When I get out of my routine, as I have been this Thanksgiving weekend, I find that I am totally "off" mentally.  It's kind of like idle hands being the devil's workshop, only for me, darkness seems to envelop my mind when I stray off my usual course.

Last week, I delighted in much mind renewal, soaking up the Lord's presence in the little things, along with enjoying the Charlotte Mason advice of nourishing Mother Culture.  This is what I love doing, and it's what I ought to do.  With the events of this weekend, I was thrown off, and have not been praying, reading the Word as much, or indulging in personal reading.  I haven't been balanced mentally, to say the least!

It hit me this morning that being off my daily routine is no excuse to allow myself to be off course.  I still eat and breathe, don't I?!  One must expect holidays and days off to occur every now and then, but this doesn't mean that mind and heart food must cease.  There's never an excuse for not submerging myself in living ideas and truth.  How grateful I am for this insight from the Holy Spirit, and for self-awareness that is healthy!

On that note, I am thrilled to begin this Advent Eve with my first reading from a new treasure, The Cloud of Witness.  This precious book packed with Scripture, poetry, and other literary nuggets was the gift that Charlotte Mason would bestow on the graduates of her teacher training institution. After ordering numerous copies from England, Nancy Kelly  (a mentor from afar and CM expert extraordinaire) decided to have this gem published in the United States. 

I am in love with everything about this book, and encourage everyone to purchase a copy.  I hope it will turn me into someone as well-versed in ideas and mind food as Nancy and others who have been on the CM journey much longer than I.

On another note, I have to wish my grandmother, the vivacious "Abue," a "Feliz cumpleaños."  Born on this day in 1919 in Cuba, she has outlived all but one of her eight siblings, her husband (Papi), and almost all of her friends.  Her vigor is an inspiration, and I wish her many more happy birthdays.

Abue in her younger years....

...and Abue today, moving almost as quickly!

Don't Be Anxious

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  Matthew 6:34

"Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.  
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul,
'Therefore I hope in Him!'"  Lamentations 3:22-24

I draw often from the insight and wisdom of retired pastor John Piper.  In the short YouTube clip entitled "Don't Be Anxious," he explains how God apportions what we need only for today.  If we look to future tasks in light of today's strength, they will seem impossible.  God provides each day what we need to make it through that day's trials, not those of tomorrow.  

Piper does not mention this, but I thought of the daily manna that rained down on the wandering Israelites.  If they worried about tomorrow's manna and attempted to store it up, it rotted and was rendered useless.  God gave them just enough for every day.  He does the same for us.

The manna God bestows is sufficient only for today's issues, but there will be a fresh supply tomorrow for those who trust in Christ.  How grateful I am for this truth!

Grace to Build Takeaways

The first weekend of this month, I attended a new homeschool retreat in my area, "Grace to Build."  This is no ordinary conference, but a gathering of parents who specifically use the Charlotte Mason method in teaching.  Every seminar was packed with jargon and precepts well-known to "CM'ers," as we call ourselves.  I  was well-submerged in CM bliss, and left overflowing.  With all the information, there are two particular ideas that I felt led to apply immediately.

One was highlighted by Sonya Shafer, a fellow homeschool mom and authority in the CM community.  Any CM'er is familiar with Sonya and her wide array of books, videos, and talks on methods and habit training.  I enjoyed a morning in a group in which Sonya was the instructor, and we adults got to be students under the CM method.  We covered natural history, arithmetic, ancient history, singing, repetition, writing, and Spanish, all in under three hours.  

How refreshing to be the pupil, reading, narrating, and learning a rich variety of living ideas!  Surprisingly, after such robust instruction, my brain was not exhausted, but rather invigorated.  Sonya had not pounded dry, meaningless facts into our minds, but had exposed us to full-bodied ideas that we consumed eagerly.  My takeaway from the exercise was that my own teaching needed to be varied concerning the order in which I presented the subjects.  The meaningful instruction was there, but I couldn't wait for Monday so I could change the topics around.

For example, as I wrote in another post, I used to do all the "table" work in one sitting.  We covered reading and spelling back to back, and would do our science and history (in which I read aloud) together, too.  Sonya pointed out that when we sequence the lessons differently, then the brain's activity is more varied, thus enabling full attention.  Now, our order looks more like this: Bible verse, penmanship, history, math, reading/phonics, science, Spanish (oral), poetry.  I have noticed more enthusiasm from all of us, and brains that are not as tired.

The other takeaway that stood out for me came from a talk that I attended given by Cheri Struble, mother of nine.  She called it "Mothers as Persons," and if anyone is qualified to speak to the idea of mothers acknowledging our own personhood, it is she (I so wanted to say "her," but just can't do it in a post about CM!).  This is not about the "me time" so many modern moms complain they never get.  It also is not going to Starbucks or shopping alone for an hour.  Those things aren't bad, but Cheri's discussion centered on giving ourselves brain food, ideas for our own minds.

As someone who has valiantly been engaged in the battle of the mind, I was all ears.  There are no "steps" to this, nor a "how-to."  When mothers, especially those who are with children all day, do not respect our own personhood, Cheri says we end up empty, moving along through our tasks like robots, eventually stuck in a pit.  We need not be convinced that a "feast of ideas" is essential for our kids, yet are we pursuing this for ourselves?  Our minds thrive on meaty, living ideas, and it is imperative that we moms make small stops throughout the day to read a poem or a few paragraphs, take a few laps around the yard, and allow ourselves to "go out to play," as Charlotte wisely advised.

The main idea is: READ!  Not an entire book a week, but a few pages.  CM'ers talk about always having "something going" in the way of books, and Cheri was specific about this.  She recommends three books at a time: a novel, a moderately easy (medium-hard) one, and a "stiff," or difficult one.  Cheri herself has been reading Les Miserables for three years now, and is committed to it as long as it takes.  That's one thing I love about the CM method: it's a marathon, not a sprint; we are about quality, not quantity.  If half a page is all one can manage, then it's enough.  Our goal is not to plow through a work, having no idea what we just read or why we bothered with it.  We are after ideas, slowly savoring each sentence, even requiring ourselves as moms to narrate what we read.  There is immense freedom in treating books this way, allowing ourselves to enjoy them rather than having pressure to finish by a certain date.  We can see reading in a whole new light.

Some CM'ers have as many as nine or ten books going at a time.  The three that I am currently reading are:

Novel (easy): Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  I only classify it as "easy" because it is my third time through it, and each time is not only more simple, but more delightful.  If you never read this classic, allow yourself the indulgence of time with the dear March sisters and their adoring mother, Marmee.

Moderately Easy: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  If you have avoided this book because the main characters are demons, fear not.  Again, as someone familiar with the enemy's tactics, this book does not scare me, but rather serves to further expose his vile trickery and lies.  As in all his works, Lewis does not disappoint, displaying his usual genius and exposure of truth.  What causes Screwtape to fall into the "medium-hard" category is that the reader must become accustomed to the wording.  Because Screwtape, speaks in the first person, his "good" is actually evil, while "evil" is God's will; the "Enemy" is God, and "our father" is Satan.  This is a must for everyone, Christ-follower or not.

Difficult: Ourselves by Charlotte Mason, herself!  This book is actually two in one, and number four in a six-volume set of Charlotte's published essays.  A true CM'er must obviously spend time with Charlotte's writings, but I believe that they hold appeal for those who use other methods, too.  Although interesting, the material is about pedagogy in general, and Mason's rich words and references often cause the reader to reread sentences several times, even looking up the meaning of her colorful vocabulary.  In order to ingest Charlotte's ideas, I can only handle a few pages at a time; she herself required her students to read Ourselves, only two pages per week!  Charlotte wrote this work to provide students with an insight into human behavior, and to give them an idea of possibilities within themselves for good and evil.  

I also often refer to my favorite "go-to" besides the Bible: The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, ed. by Daniel Partner.  This volume of over a thousand pages is crammed with Spurgeon sermons, books, and even his autobiography.  Sometimes just a paragraph is enough to give me mind-food on which to chew for a whole day.

Within our homeschool, my girls and I have several books going as well:
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, the Abeka version designed for children.  Although Charlotte stayed away from "versions" of original works, I do not always adhere to the same principle (don't tell other CM'ers!). 

The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess.  I recommend anything at all by this delightful author, who makes all animals real, alive, and fun for children and adults.  We read a chapter at a time, and have a corresponding Pinterest board with a photo and information about each bird.

Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pumphrey.  In my humble opinion, this must be read by anyone who celebrates Thanksgiving!  We read it twice a week, about ten pages at a time, and usually paste a picture from it in notebooks, including copywork with a corresponding sentence.

Little Women, already mentioned, which means I am reading it for the fourth time as I read it a third time!  I am about halfway through in my personal reading, but the girls and I read only six or seven pages at a time.  So far, they are as enchanted as I am, and we have decided which characters we each represent.  Can you guess who they are??

Finally, in the evenings, my husband and I each have two separate books going with each girl, and alternate who reads to whom before bed, in addition to nighttime Bible reading.  I am enjoying a different book from the Nancy Drew series with each daughter.  Never having read these in childhood, I am completely sold on them as an adult.  The challenging vocabulary and engaging plots add to our solid diet of idea-food.

As rich as the retreat was, it has been easy to incorporate some simple principles and habits into our school and my life as a mom.  I am grateful to God for adding to the soundness of my mind with these ideas, and I believe all adults can form the habit of reading snippets during a busy day.

Papi's Wisdom, God's Gift

"As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him the power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor--this is the gift of God.  For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart." Ecclesiastes 5:19-20

There is no telling how much time I have spent meditating on these verses penned by wise Solomon.  The type of mind-labor I can enjoy involves rolling over and over such ideas.  I used to sit up at night about ten years ago, plagued by job difficulties, and ponder Solomon's revelations.  O, to "rejoice" in my labor, I clamored.  To not be crippled by the minutia of life, but rather to have the joy described throughout this book!  Does anyone really ever live that way, I wondered?

Not many years ago, it dawned on me that not only are there individuals who experience this daily "gladness of heart" (Ecc. 5:20, NIV), but I witnessed it firsthand for years!  My grandfather, Antonio Jimenez, ("Blanco" to most, "Papi" to me), lived the description of these verses unlike anyone else I've known.  Papi's riches were simplicity, joy in work...gifts of God.  He did not dwell "unduly" on the days of his life, because God kept him "occupied with the joy of his heart."

Some of us are given the treasure of being around a person like Papi.  We do not always consider the divine gift of it in the everyday moments, and often take the days for granted.  A person of such meekness probably moves through life unaware of the impact he has, but little eyes are watching.  Did Papi realize the effect of his daily life on mine?  Did I know then that I was absorbing him in the little things?

Papi as he looked when I was a girl.  Campi the cat was his buddy.

Papi could have wallowed in the fact that by age seven, he was left an orphan.  He could have been depressed about leaving his beloved Cuba, planting new roots in a strange place where few knew his language.  He could have dwelled unduly on the days of his life, wondering why circumstances were so hard, and he could have become frustrated communicating in English.  He could have barked at me that I had it easy, and knew nothing of hardships such as he had endured.  He didn't.  Papi was occupied with a joy of heart and richness of labor that overcame the adversities he had endured.  They were gifts of God.

What he did was leave a legacy, not of grand accomplishments and titles by his name, but of peace, joy, and mind rest.  He exhibited simplicity as a way of life, fulfillment in what the world calls mundane, but what I am discovering is rich and deep.  Solomon, the wisest man on earth, said, "Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage" (Ecclesiastes 5:18).  My grandfather's wisdom ranked with that of Solomon.

Papi cured any cut with Mercurochrome, that bright orange liquid in a small brown glass bottle; it was applied with a stick on the bottle cap, and burned on contact.  He whistled like a bird and sang old Cuban music like Desi Arnaz.  He traveled among grocery stores, finding a bargain here, and another one there, supplying my childhood with Nestle Crunch bars, Sprite, and striped fudge round cookies.  Kids back then were fed sweets as snacks and lived to tell about it.

We would ride around Spartanburg, where we lived, in his Chevy Cavalier (a later car than the one pictured below).  The radio dial was always tuned to AM 950, WSPA, no longer in existence.  We listened to a mixture of Perry Como, Chuck Berry, and even Michael McDonald, and then Bill Drake would announce the news and local happenings.  

None of this involved out-of-the-ordinary feats to entertain or amaze me; the everyday delight of ordinariness was enough, and was what I now realize I needed and craved.  Did I know I was absorbing how Papi loved his friends, the community he had with others who had migrated to this small town in search of freedom and life?  Did I see the love that went into the laundry he carried to the laundromat across the street, the wet socks and undershirts spread on the line outside?  Did I have any idea of what God was doing, how He was causing me to observe the little things, so that someday they would become big things?

There was an African-American man who would walk down Reidville Road, close to Papi's house.  The first time I noticed him was one day when we drove past, and Papi honked the horn at him.  The man looked up and acknowledged with a small wave.  "Who was that?" I inquired in Spanish, to which Papi replied, "Mi amigo!"  After that, if we ever rode down that section of street around the same time of day, it never failed: there the man would be, the horn would honk, and the "amigo" would smile and wave.  What a tiny episode to have created such an impactful memory for a little girl.  That's who Papi was: everyone, regardless of color or language, was his "amigo."

Little girl me with Papi, around 1979.
The mound of dark fur in the bottom left corner is pet dog and pal, Cookie. 

Soon after Papi died in 2002, I entered a grocery store and was so overcome with emotion, I left in tears.  The burst of grief was from nothing special, yet everything special.  It was the plainness of the store, and the nostalgic music playing there, the lady handing out free samples that Papi loved; those little things reminded me of a regular man who was so great.  How would I ever shop for food again, I wondered in that searing moment.  How could the world go on without such a superlative soul?  And God saw fit to use my sorrow to introduce me to His Son, my Savior.  That was the beginning of my salvation experience and what I've come to know as the sanctification of the ones He loves.

How I managed to go back into the store came from the Holy Spirit showing me that He planted the gift of Papi's simplicity in me, too.  For thirteen years, it has been sprouting, growing, being painfully pruned, and even having to be sawed off here and there.  Not a trip to Aldi or Dollar General is spent without rejoicing in the fact that I, too, love a bargain, and Papi's legacy lives on in the delight I experience remembering him as I travel the aisles.  It lives on in that, and oh-so-many other daily occurrences.

In no way can I condense the details of this man into one post, nor would I want to make an attempt.  I will be gratified in unraveling much about him in posts to come, as well as more about this audacious journey of healing, love, grace, growth, and sanctification, all enfolded in the simple rest of Christ's loving arms.

A Frazzled Mind

I was in a tizzy last week, affected by the poor planning of several women who take on too much and are spread thin.  My posture toward our culture was indignant, frustrated that it's too easy to believe the lie that we can do it all.  I wasted at least a day stewing about why moms today just can't focus on what's important, why we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed.  The idea just wouldn't leave me.

When I least expected it, the Holy Spirit gave me a loving nudge.  Yes, I am indeed intentional about not squandering my time.  I have no problem saying no to activities just for activities' sake.  My schedule seldom overpowers daily life. No, I do not feel guilty about abstaining from things that will add to what we already do.  Then came the kicker: My schedule isn't what overwhelms me; where I need to declutter is my brain.

He gently had lain it out for me.  The chaos in my mind is just as exhausting as the hectic lives of many women in our culture.  Wow.  I could only humbly agree with what my Maker was revealing to me.  Many are stressed out because they run here and there; my stress is due to the mental gymnastics caused by my flesh and the enemy.

Scenarios unroll rapidly in my head.  While first in line at the red light, I imagine it turning green and my going forward, only to be taken out by an eighteen-wheeler.  The strange man at the corner library table makes me nervous; suppose I turn my head and he jumps up and takes off with one of my kids?  My daughter darts past the top of the stairs, and I imagine her slipping and falling down them, slamming hard against the wood.  This is only a taste of the darkness that overtakes me at any given moment of the day.

When I was a teenager, I put no limits on the filth I allowed myself to either read or see on television.  What God created as beautiful to be exclusively between husband and wife has been perverted by the world in a way that now makes me seethe.  More than twenty years later, there remain writings and images I wish I could erase, and the enemy knows when to strategically remind me of them.  We should stop at nothing to protect the purity of our kids' bodies and minds.

I cannot recall ever having lived without this overactive imagination, the worry, fear, and fight-or-flight feeling.  All of a sudden, though, the Holy Spirit is showing me that it's not who I am.  I don't have to be bound by undesired thoughts, and do not have to think them if I don't want to! I am not crazy, as the enemy would like me to think, nor am I bound to these dark thoughts forever.  Christ is bringing darkness into light.

Back in June, on an evening when I was particularly tormented with undesirable mind-clutter, I had a moment of desperation in which I cried out to the Lord.  Normally, when I make a request of Him, I've learned to wait and He answers when I least expect it (like when He gave me the nudge about my mind last week).  However, this time, I said outright, "Lord, I can't stand this, and I need peace.  If there's a verse where you can lead me..." and before I could go on, I felt, "Ephesians 4:23."  My Bible wasn't even open, and I half-wondered if my overactive brain had come up with that verse just to have a "word from God." 
Imagine my surprise when I flipped to it and read:

"and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." 

Yes, God cares.  He made us, and in Him we already have a sound mind.  He saw fit to point me directly to what He wanted me to know, and I loved it.  God is showing me that this is way beyond words on a page, or list-making, or white-knuckled efforts at replacing my thoughts with fluffy images.  This is about my sins of worry, fear, and trying to control my mind on my own.  I have spent too many years being my own protector, and I know He wants me to hand that role back to Him.

Another verse that we take for granted that is becoming rubber-meeting-road for me is Psalm 46:10:
"Be still and know that I am God."
How on earth do I do that?!  I decided to say that very thing to my Creator: "Lord, I want to be still and let you take over my mind, but I've never done that and I need your help.  Please be in charge of my mind and bring renewal to it."

This "renewing of the mind" from what now will always be my favorite verse (Ephesians 4:23) and Romans 12:2 is beginning to click.  I'm seeing that it's not about my efforts to "change," but about allowing the Holy Spirit to take over and transform my entire way of thinking.  Christ doesn't give us a spirit of fear, but soundness of mind (2 Timothy 1:7).  As a believer, I am not a slave again to fear (Romans 8:15).  The new creation that I am in Christ "was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).  

Will we all experience occasional fear?  Of course.  Will an unsavory thought from the past never again resurface?  Doubtful.  The change in renewal will be that I am no longer in bondage to the fear, worry, or shame that have lived in my head for so long.  Sometimes we have to get to the point of utter despair before we are willing to give complete surrender.  The Holy Spirit is the Mind-Renewer, if only we first ask and then trust.

Old & New

Here is a "funny" for today:

From "What Your Sleep Position Reveals," by Samuel Dunkell, M.D.,
Reader's Digest, July 1977, pp. 137-39.

This guy has me pegged!  How does he know so much about me?!

One of my favorite things to do is look for old magazines and books.  Why? Because they contain such wisdom and truth, and aren't watered-down with banality like many of today's publications.  We "educated" folk of this modern era often believe there's nothing to learn from generations past, or that it's not hip to fall behind in what's current.  Solomon wasn't joking when he stated, "There is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

My life would be dreadfully ordinary without these nuggets of humor from the past.  We can enjoy contemporary reading and also give ourselves permission to indulge in bygone simplicity.  The two intermingle nicely, and we discover that those unenlightened fogies said things worth pondering, perhaps challenging our own enlightenment.

Disclaimer: I'm not sure I fully buy into the description of the "Prone Sleeper," but I had fun reading it and indulging in a few minutes of escape from today's bustle.  Every generation thinks we have it all figured out, and according to Solomon and the rest of the Word, everything has always been figured out, just not by us. We look to the One Who was there in the beginning (John 1:1-5).  Let's rest in that today, and be content in the little hunks of light that He bestows that bring us joy.

A Sound Mind

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
2 Timothy 1:7

Oh, how I have longed for a sound mind.  To not fret, to be still, to escape the worrisome ideas the enemy screams into my head...this became my quest.  Just the other day, the Holy Spirit nudged me to see something in this verse I thought I knew well.  I looked at it again with clarity: 

God has [already]...given...a sound mind.

I do have the soundness of mind I've so desired!  Those of us who believe in Christ as our Savior all possess it, even when we feel like we don't.  When thoughts that we despise creep in, it's not our job to seek a sound mind; we already have it, given to us by God.

As a preacher of truth, Charles Spurgeon experienced the enemy's tormenting mind games.  In his work All of Grace, he states:

"These thoughts, if you hate them, are none of yours, but are injections of the devil for which he is responsible, not you...The poor diseased woman could not come to Jesus for the press, and you are in much the same condition because of the rush and throng of these dreadful thoughts.  Still, she put forth her finger and touched the fringe of the Lord's garment, and she was healed.  Do you the same...He can still those horrible whisperings of the fiend, or He can enable you to see them in their true light so that you may not be worried by them...Only trust Him for this and everything else." (From The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.  Used by permission).

It is a tactic of God's enemy to make us believe that we are responsible for abominable thoughts that we detest.  If he can worry us, he can cause all sorts of havoc: drawing us away from Christ because of shame, making us believe we are responsible for thoughts we hate, giving us a disgraceful view of ourselves, causing us to forget who we are in Christ and that His blood has made us whole and clean, and even putting fear in us because of scary topics.

If a visible person were standing beside me making atrocious claims, I would be repulsed, but it would be obvious that someone else said the things, not me.  Why is it hard to accept that Satan sends out his minions to do this?  When we are in Christ, He has already bestowed soundness of mind on us.  He gives the Holy Spirit to be our Counselor, to provide us with discernment.  We need not be worried by the "whisperings of the fiend," or think that we need to control them.  We do as James says and first "submit to God," then "resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).

My sins in this department are worrying, fear, and trying to take control.  God didn't give me a spirit of fear; remember 2 Timothy 1:7?  I can't stop someone (even a demon) from attempting to bully me, but I can invoke the name of Christ and resist it.  Thinking that I'm the perpetrator of thoughts I hate is playing into the enemy's lie.  Confessing my worry about it, my fear of it, and my desire to control it enables me to give God back His job as my Rescuer. And I can say right out loud, "God has given me soundness of mind, and you are the Father of Lies.  I choose to walk in the light and truth of Christ." 

Even with soundness of mind I should still seek and ask God for what Paul describes in Philippians 4:8.  He says to meditate, or "think on" what is "true...noble...right...pure...lovely...admirable...excellent...and praiseworthy." We can request that the Holy Spirit to fill our minds with these things because it's what God commands, and we should want to think about such things.  But beware: just because we long for this doesn't mean we are exempt from the enemy's attempts.  In fact, I imagine he will try all the more to throw us off and cause us to believe God must just not be hearing us.  

He is the Father of Lies, remember?  We are mortals on a challenging journey of sanctification.  Go back to what Spurgeon says: if we hate them, the thoughts are not ours.  So, I keep praying Philippians 4:13, thanking God for the sound mind He's already given me, and further asking Him to help my heart fully believe what my head can read in Scripture.  Being "transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2) doesn't mean happy, joyful thoughts all the time.  Spiritual bullies will always seek to steal our joy (John 10:10). I'm seeing that being transformed in my mind means believing I am who Christ says I am, not who the enemy wants me to think I am.  

Jesus lovingly told a woman who was threatened by her accusers, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (John 8:12).  He Himself is the light who stamps out darkness; we only have to trust Him, confessing our doubt and fears.  He loves and accepts us as we are, but wants to fight our battles for us. Jesus is the bully silencer, the sound mind-giver.  I am in the process of learning to accept His gift of a sound mind and trust Him as my Rescuer, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11).