A silly little exercise for you
Training in God’s Grace
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For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
Titus 2:11-12 (NET)
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A quick test for you:
Whatever you do, don’t think about pink elephants.
Don’t picture a pink elephant walking around the safari, or a pink elephant sounding its trumpet, or a momma pink elephant walking around with her baby pink elephant.
…
I bet you thought about a pink elephant.
This silly little exercise highlights an important point about living a Godly life:
It’s not enough to reject godless ways & worldly desires -- we have to pursue upright & Godly things too.
If you were able to avoid thinking about a pink elephant, you probably did it by thinking about something equally absurd.
Like a blue hippopotamus.
Likewise, if I want to avoid these destructive sins, it’s hard to do that by simply trying not to do them.
It’s better to fill my life with the good things so that I’m too busy to worry or think about those bad things.
The good things?
Self-controlled life (i.e., discipline)
Upright life
Godly life
In other words, flee sin and pursue God.
One movement, away from one and toward the other.
Lastly, I wanted to go back to the beginning: God’s grace appeared, bringing salvation to all people.
That’s what stood out to me initially.
A nice reminder of the joy of the Gospel and how much God so loved the whole world.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2026 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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