As I Think, I Am...(I think?) - Battlefield of the Mind - Day 3

Well, I used this verse in this post two days ago, but it has surfaced once again...

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he... Proverbs 23:7 

So...my thoughts, if dwelled upon, will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.  If I think about how overwhelmed I am at work, then I will feel overwhelmed, and then act that way with my tail draggin'.  If I keep dwelling on the time change and the gray, gloomy skies in northeast Ohio today, I will start feeling tired and then my behavior will be yawn, after yawn, after yawn.  If I dwell incessantly on the things I cannot control, I will become anxious and my behavior will be reactive to the developing anxiety that I've allowed to flood me.



I love this example...if I start obsessing on ice cream, I will start craving ice cream...next thing I know, I'm in the car in my jammies off to Dairy Queen for a cone.

You laugh...but I actually did this once!  And I was at a stop light, with my prized ice cream cone, enjoying it...and my foot slipped off the brake and I rolled into the car in front of me.  OF COURSE...the lady had a brand new car and there was a little scratch on it.  I wrote her a check for $300 and was on my way.  That was one EXPENSIVE ice cream cone.

But...on the other side of the coin...the same is true.  And we all KNOW this, don't we?  And yet, we always end up in the negative end of the pool, if we are not vigilant with this battlefield between our ears.

I will admit...I am NOT a bowler.  (Although the first time I went bowling, I picked up a 7-10 split, and I fell on me bum...I did not even know that something like that was hard to do...)  But sometimes I view this path we travel like a narrow bowling lane with huge gutters on each side.

I start out great...

           the ball is going perfectly...

                   and then before I know it...

                             it gets close to the side....

                                         and you can guess the rest...

GUTTER BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember early October 2011...Edster and I spent 10 days in the grandeur of autumnal appalachia...Canaan Valley, West Virginia.  No schedule.  No pressures.  We like to read a book together on our vacations.  This one was One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

It was transforming!  The premise:  We are lavished every single moment of the day with amazing gifts from God that we fail to see because we fail to look...to anticipate...and therefore do not meditate upon.

The theme of this blog comes from the line in the old hymn, "Morning by morning new mercies I see..." that comes from Lamentations 3:22-23:

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

So, just as that bowling ball...I was gung ho...searching daily...moment-by-moment...for things to add to my list of One Thousand Gifts and dwelling on continual gratitude was creating a noticeable difference in me that others observed.

But like that bowling ball...unless it is a continual discipline in our lives...even with our best intentions...even with how it starts out...without God's grace, well, I'll speak for me...I go back to being a GUTTER BALL...  And so I know this list MUST be a spiritual discipline.

Lord, may your Spirit be a citadel over this battlefield...and may I continue to see your new mercies every moment of every day and receive them with a grateful heart.





What's In Your Mind?

Edster and I were driving home, after he picked me up from work...

We are both Baby Boomers born in the late 1950's...and lately we've been enjoying a local AM station that features news on the hour and songs from the 60's and 70's.  (Does anyone remember when most stations were AM...and transistor radios?)

So there we were listening...and I heard this song by Gordon Lightfoot, which inspired this photo:

As I've gotten older, I seem to carry more and more in my head...keep things inside versus talking so much.

What tales could your mind tell?  What do you with your tales?  Do you write them down?  Do you use a creative outlet?  Do you tell them to a friend?  Do you let them remain inside for fear no one would understand?  Are these tales full of kind words and support?  Or are they filled with negativity and things that tear you down?  Do they get bigger and almost unmanageable?

As a mental health therapist, I think about cognitive therapy developed by Aaron Beck and rational emotive therapy developed by Albert Ellis based on cognitive theory.  To put it in a nutshell: What the mind thinks, effects one's emotions, which ultimately directs one's behavior.

But wasn't this written about ages ago by Solomon?

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he...  Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV)
 

And so, despite my Master's education, it is in an ancient book, one that is "living and active" that holds the keys to the thoughts and tales that weigh us down.

One of my favorite verses is in Lamentations 26:3 that holds one of those secrets...

You keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (ESV)
 

And if our thoughts are as powerful as Beck and Ellis assert, the Apostle Paul beat them to the punch:

...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8 (ESV)
 

I came across a great site by accident (yeah, right) called YouVersion.  You can also downoad the app for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android here. They have a variety of reading plans/devotionals.  I found one called, "Battlefield of the Mind" which can be done in 14 days!

I am grateful for God's word that can counter the negative thoughts and "tales" in our heads...that it brings us hope and focuses us into His reality, on which should be our mindset that always brings perfect peace.