As a stay at home mom, I seem to have a lot of time to think throughout the day. Whether I'm feeding a baby food that he will soon sneeze out all over me, or feed to the dog. Or standing at the sink loading yet ANOTHER sink full of dishes. Folding Laundry, or watching my kids swing. My mind is always functioning. Maybe not always at a high, intelligent level..but functioning none the less.
No matter what, I seem to be doing my mind has the opportunity for thoughts to run through my brain.
Some good thoughts, Some bad thoughts, Some "I just gotta get this done" thoughts.
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts.....
I used to think that being alone with your thoughts was a good thing. But I'm not always so sure. Sure "thinking" is obviously an important part of our daily activity. It's essential for life...for most people anyways. :)
But what happens when you have thoughts you just want to get rid of? What happens when your thoughts are bringing you down, causing you pain, stirring up misery in your heart?
I'd be lying if I said I never had those types of thoughts. In fact I have them often. I feel them often, I hate them OFTEN!
Having negative thoughts is like living in a toxic wasteland. The toxic thoughts start to effect everything it comes into contact with. The thing that makes toxic thoughts so bad for us is that it effects our main operating system ...OUR MINDS, and then our toxic thoughts travel down to our heart and then out through our actions. And before long, our whole lives are toxic, and it's all because of those stupid toxic thoughts.
Can you relate? Have you been there? Are you there now?? I hope I'm not the only one who deals with this, I'm assuming I'm not.
As I was reading and studying for the Unglued Bible study I lead at church, I heard a statement that sort of stopped me in my tracks.
"Negative inside chatter is misguided thoughts that can easily turn into perceptions that then turn into dangerous realities."
The author went on to say,
"TOXIC thoughts, leave no room for truth to flourish. Where there is no truth- LIES REIGN"
Wow, did you catch that! Where there is no TRUTH, Lies Reign.
I can think of quite a few areas where lies have reigned in my life throughout the years.
Lies about my husband
Lies about my kids or my role as a mom
Lies about my body
Lies about ME.....
It's miserable to live with lies. To be ruled by negativity. To only see the bad and never the good.
To allow your actions to be dictated by your ugly feelings towards your circumstances or people around you.
Yep, those Toxic thoughts have certainly caused me grief and I'm sure you've experienced it too.
I can be having a perfectly peaceful, happy day when a negative thought or memory will come out of left field and slap me in the face. Bringing up hurt feelings, regret, conversations that I wish I had or HADN'T had. Things from like 10 years ago..I mean hello...it's over with already, move on!! But the negative thoughts keep me stuck.
Where there is no TRUTH- Lies Reign
It seems to me that there is no shortage of lies in this world. Lies seem to come at us full speed ahead from every angle. What I don't see an abundance of is TRUTH!!
We need to know the truth about who we are! About our lives, circumstances and relationships.
The TRUTH is that our Heavenly Father sent his son to die to ransom us from our toxic mess! To save our souls, to redeem our mistakes, to make us whole, to remind us that we are CHERISHED.
I've been a Christian for the majority of my life, and I don't always feel whole. In fact I RARELY feel whole...and it's not because I didn't RSVP to the "GET WHOLENESS FROM JESUS PARTY" or because he is backing out on his promises.
It's because I focus on the mess, on the toxic junk. I mull it over and over again in my mind and allow it to bring me down. Instead I should be thanking God for His truth and thinking on it daily!
"Rejoice Always, Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for THIS is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus." 1Thes 5:16-18
I forget to be thankful some days...ok A LOT of days. I get too focused on my messy circumstances, or my negative emotions.
Thankfulness breeds more thankfulness.
Focusing on what I AM, instead of what I am NOT. Helps me apply truth to the lies that reign in my perception of myself.
Phil 4:8-9 "Finally brothers and sisters, Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- If anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me. Put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
It's HARD to do that some days. But it simply has to be done. It HAS TO!
Cleaning up your thought life is a lot like a smelly refrigerator!
When you open up that frig you realize right away if something in there is TOXIC. Do you close it back up and just hope that the toxic decaying food will evaporate??
NO of course you don't..ok maybe you do for a few days. But EVENTUALLY, you HAVE to clean it out. The good food will get all nasty stuck inside that air tight frig with decaying toxic nastiness.
So, to maintain the environment for healthy food, it must be discarded!
Same is true for your minds. Some times it's easier to let the toxic nastiness of our thoughts, sit and simmer...but it only gets worse, smells more and eventually will need to be cleaned out if we want to move on not smelling like STANK! :) Yep, I said STANK!
So I encourage you Messy Women to clean out your mind. Get rid of the junk and replace it with truth.
I don't know what lies are reigning in your mind about your life. But dig into Gods word and apply truth. Don't allow lies to reign any longer.
It's time to grab our big girl panties, a clothes pin for our nose, gloves for our hands and dig up that toxic mess that's causing pain in our thought life.
Let the word of God set you free!! Cause He who the SON(Jesus) sets free, is free indeed.
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, YOU ARE LOVED, and YOU ARE WORTH THE EFFORT!!
Where there is no truth- Lies Reign.
So de-throne that sucker- and let TRUTH bring peace! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment