Monday's Blessing
Ephesians 4:22-23
"Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes."
Our minds are like computers. It processes thoughts, in fact, it stores everything we see whether we want it to or not. In that huge filing cabinet, you have access to every thought you've ever encountered. You decide what thought you will entertain in your mind. It comes in handy sometimes when you can't find your keys, but it's not helpful when you consider the amount of smut, foul language, ungodly concepts, and other negative input it stores every day. Nevertheless, simply because a destructive thought is stored in your mental computer does not mean you have to pull it up and run it on the main screen of your mind.
Every second of every day we have a choice to be mindful of what we allow to come into our lives. Part of being on a Christian path means raising your level of consciousness and awareness. Even at our most prayerful presence, we cannot control every aspect that enters our lives. If we set the intention to live our lives in the most Christ-like fashion by making the choice to gently remove those things that do not serve the greatest good, we still succumb to negative influences. We're human.
Try the following 4 ideas to remove those negative thoughts in our lives:
1. The first step in moving towards filtering out those things, places, people, habits, and foods that do not serve your Christian life, is to set an intention and be clear that this is really what you want to do. Very often, we have these ideas to make these positive changes, but in reality, we may not be ready to do them. If this is true, there is nothing wrong with you, it happens to all of us, but sit and pray about why you may or may not be ready to let some unhealthy habits go. Making the commitment to these changes and getting in that mental space is a great place to begin.
2. Next, strive to be present to every aspect of your life, go inward, and see how it feels for you. Cultivate your sense of intuition here. If some things just aren’t feeling right for you, contemplate why that might be. We live in a society that focuses on over-thinking things, and going off what our brains tell us to do. Learn to listen to your body. Get out of your head and start to feel your way through life.
3. Identify what it is in your life that can be gently let go of. Maybe it’s a violent TV show that leaves you feeling anxious after watching it. Maybe it’s a relationship that agitates you and leaves you feeling lonely. Maybe you are feeling suffocated by your living situation and need growth. There are so many avenues we can look here, and it is all unique to our lives. Identifying what you can release will open up the space to bring in more positives into your life.
4. Finally, after marking what can be released, contemplate what positives you can bring in to fill those spaces. If you’re filtering out a TV show, try replacing it with a positive book. If you’re letting go of a relationship, focus on loving and taking care of yourself. If you’re disenchanted with a living space go searching for somewhere that makes you feel happy, get out in nature, or work to change up the space you’re currently living in. Beginning to gently let go of these negatives and replacing them with purposeful positives will be beneficial to all aspects of your life.
Living positive, happy, meaningful lives is possible for each and every one of us. At every moment, we are all growing and evolving. We progress through making simple, positive changes that add up to create a beautiful, purposeful life.
This week's meditation:
God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.
Practice this four times a day or more.
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