Whatever is Lovely

"Finally brothers,...whatever is lovely....think about such things." Philippians 4:8

I have a hard time taking the word "lovely" very seriously. For some reason, it rings sarcasm through my head. I guess I've abused it a bit.

This verse is the only place in the Bible that this particular word is used. It is translated lovely, but it actually what we would consider, in English, a compound word. One word meaning " to, for, on, at, near, by toward, with, in order to" and the other word meaning "friendly, acceptable,pleasing."

To me, this is a very simple part of the verse. The basic question that we so often try to dodge, "Is that nice? Would you do it to a friend?" 

With kids: The concept of how we should treat our friends comes up over and over and over again with kids. We were made for relationships, so guiding our kids through how to conduct relationships is some of the best training we can provide them with. Some simple questions we can ask when our kids are mistreating someone:

• Would you want to be friends with someone who did that to you?


• Is that how you should treat a friend?


• What do you think would make a friend happy?