Another Thought

It is usually my familial kitchen table that inspires my writings.  My thoughts, however, come and go all day long.  I love to see people's eyes light up when they discover that they have choices about their thoughts.  I find it reassuring that the mind is not a helpless mass of directionless neurons, unable to respond to commands.  But controling our thoughts does not happen by accident.

Just as we train our muscles to go from flab to tight, or we train our spirit to go from darkness to light, we can train our mind to go from dread and despair to truth and reality. I said "truth and reality" because most of our dreadful thoughts are not based on truth, but fear.  Overcoming fears is a great place to start receiving truth - truth about a situation or thought.  Isolation makes our fears grow like mold on humid surfaces.  Close relationships help us center when our minds decide to run wild.  But the real work is to train ourselves to learn "to take every tought captive." This could be a constant minute by minute choice for some people.  Some of us will do this by intaking truth through God's word daily. Others will first need repairing of the mind from past experiences before being able to accept truth. We are all in different places, but we are all the same: we all fall short of God's glory and are in need of a Savior. 

Fear, despair, doubt, insecurity, self-destruction - all need to be taken captive and replaced with peace, rest, trust, confidence, and self-protection.  God has secured a place for us, He has given us good instructions for dealing with our own battles. We are instructed to take up our cross daily.

The problem may come when I get tired and unwilling to take up my daily cross and instead, begin to question and doubt.  I start to think too much, just like Eve when she was deceived after having had clear instructions directly from God as to what not to do.  If she, so close to God, was deceived, what hope do I have?  "Our Body Will Follow Our Thoughts," "We Are What We Think," "Self-Talk Is The Most Important Conversation We Have All Day," are just a few reminders that we are responsible to actively work on our thought process.  Awareness, distraction, Scripture, deep breathing, relaxation, music, prayer, friends, are just a few examples to achieve this capture.  So I declare today I will think about ..."whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-I will think about such things."