Patsy Clairmont - The Hat Box: Putting on the Mind of Christ

O kay, let me get this out of the way right up frontI own twelve hats. I know because I just counted. Dont get me wrong; I love hats. I just dont own many because I dont wear them.

Well, thats not exactly true. I try to wear them, but Im built real close to the sidewalk, like a gnome, and putting a roof on a short structure can create a comical effect. I know this from the guffaws Ive generated when Ive stepped out in public with my head tucked up inside my baseball cap. Its not the ball cap that tickles people because I get the same reaction when Im arrayed in my straw hats, my winter caps, or my garden headgear. The snickers would offend me, but I caught a glimpse of myself in a stores window as I sashayed by, and I could be a ringer for Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies. Personally, I thought she was cute.

Ive imagined myself swishing across the room like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys (ask your mother), flapping my eyelashes under the wide brim of a picture hat. Alas, Im grateful to stumblehatlessacross the room in time for breakfast.

I have friends who wear hats majestically. My hats off to them. They have considerable stature (doesnt bother me, doesnt bother me, doesnt bother me), long necks (mine is full of chins), and eyes the size of portholes.

While this book is about hats, its about so much more. Well check out whats going on inside our hats... our thought life. What sort of thinking deserves a hats-off salute from us? And what kind of thinking do we want to keep under our hats?

The first book in this series, The Shoe Box, dealt with how we walk. The Hat Box considers the way we think, which takes us from the tip of our painted toes to the top of our (oops, pointed) heads.

We will don twelve consider verses from Scripturejust as we would put on our favorite hatsthat we might experience the Lords voice in surround-sound, filling our minds with divine counsel. Each verse will have a corresponding head covering to help us to remember to think up. The Lord tells us to set your mind on things above (Colossians 3:2), and thats just what were going to do.

So pull out your hat boxes. If theyre like mine, youll need to dust them off, and lets consider how our minds influence everything we do.

Okay, girlfriends, grab your tams, fezzes, berets, sombreros, hoods, caps, babushkas, derbies, stocking caps, and beanies, and lets head out...

Our world needs some folks willing
to cause a stir with love!

C ONSIDER O NE A NOTHER

Consider one another in order to stir up love and
good works. (Hebrews 10:24)

W hats cooking?

My friend Ann is a personal chef, and she is in my kitchen stirring up love while I write. In fact, I consumed some of her loving efforts for luncha scrumptious, stuffed pepper. Because Im moving at breakneck speed until Thanksgiving, my husband and I splurged and asked Ann to whip up some dinners for our freezer. That way, even when Im traveling, Les has easy access to a meal, and when Im home, especially on the nights Im working on a book deadline, we just toss one of her tasty offerings in the oven. Ann ran a retail business for years called Somewhere in Time but had a longing to touch peoples lives in a more personal way. Now under the name Dinner on Time, she is cooking for handicapped folks, working mothers, widows, widowers, and individuals who are pressed on all sides with responsibilities that pull them out of the kitchen. Her efforts bless others. I can attest to that.

My friend Ginny and her married daughter Erin both wear chefs hats several times a month when they host Two Hearts of Gold. They team-cook in Ginnys home, teaching young mothers simple yet sumptuous meals for their families. The pair gives tips and fixes the food as their guests gather round to watch. Then the participants have the joy of eating what Ginny and Erin have prepared. How fun is that? They also teach how to set a lovely table with the finishing touches of flowers from the garden and candles from the cupboard. Truly these two ladies are stirring up love.

Im not surprised because Ginny has been a cherished friend for years, and many times she has baked my favorite concoctionmashed potato rollsand delivered them to me. More than once she has put the dough in her car to rise as she drove two hours to visit my home. One time the temperatures were scorching, and by the time she arrived, the dough had risen right out of its container, crawled over the headrest, oozed under the seatbelt, and was resting comfortably in the seat. It looked like the blob that ate Philly. But once it was contained and baked, it melted in ones mouth like soft butter.

I would be hard-pressed to tout a chef s hat without those who know me giggling themselves silly. While I enjoy cooking in spurts (but then, who eats spurts?), its not one of my gifts. For one thing, Im far too exacting for it to be fun. Im more like a rocket scientistminus the brains.