DAY 2
POSITIVE THINKING
Every negative thought has power. The question I have for you is how much power are you willing to hand over to negative thoughts? You and I have a choice. We can either succomb to the jumbled thoughts that threaten to invade our minds or we can take them captive. Did you know that ugly thoughts are like a virus? They invade your mind and try everything in their power to destroy. Until the virus is stopped it lingers around making you sick and miserable.
Negative thoughts turn into negative words which leads to a negative attitude.
If I were to ask the people around you to describe your personality to me…would they say you're an optimistic person or a pessimistic one? The difference is an optimistic person can find the hope in a cruddy situation and the pessimistic person only sees doom & gloom.
So what can you and I do to keep our thoughts positive?
1– Put negative thoughts IN JAIL! You read that right. Beth Moore says in her book Breaking Free, "Take captive any thoughts that go against God's word" and she even shows a drawing depicting the thoughts behind bars. I love that! Never allow rotten thoughts the freedom to just roam around in your head. Put them in their place.
2 — Pursue God! Instead of dwelling on other things, seek Him. I feel strong when I have God's word around me. Sometimes, I write scriptures on cards and tape them in places that I spend time so that I will be reminded of Him and His love for me. Beautiful framed scripture art is great too. I know when I am meditating on His word…there isn't much space left for the negative stuff.
3 — Power up! The only way you and I can be strong in our pursuit of positive thinking is to practice doing it, everyday. Looking for some easy ways to power up? Use "I can" statements. Speak encouragement to others. Write down positive self-compliments. Smile, a lot. And pray.
You see, the enemy wants nothing more than to keep us in a perpetual state of unhappiness. If our thoughts are gloomy then our attitude will match. Don't allow it. Decide today that no one has control over your mind but you (and Jesus). It won't take long and that old negative way of thinking will be a thing of the past.
I can still remember the hot flushed feeling on my face when I realized the sneaky behavior my mom was exhibiting….was all connected to a surprise bike for me! I was pretty angry with her (in my mind) because she left me for a special outing that didn't include me. I thought for sure she was going out for fun. The shame I felt afterwards nearly stole every bit of joy for that sparkly silver banana-seated bike. The lesson for my 9 year old self that day stuck with me….don't think the worst, it could be a blessing in disguise!
