Life is simply amazing yet it can also be so frustrating. Watching an amazing sunset literally takes my breath away. Listening to the birds singing their songs of joy and watching the squirrels chasing each other up and down the trees, makes my heart skip a beat. Watching my children and grandchildren grow makes me feel blessed. Then I turn on the news and those feelings of bliss and peace and joy slowly fade away and I become frustrated and overwhelmed (and not in a good way). I could write pages and pages of what's wrong with society today but instead I want to focus on the positive, and the good. After all there is so much good news we never hear about, so many positive things happening in this world that never make the national news.
"Life is what you make it!" I have heard this saying over and over again. Henry Ford once said, "whether you think you can or you can't; you are right!" Our mind is a powerful tool that will affect not only our lives and our physical bodies, but it also affects those people we deal with in life. Have you ever been around a "Negative Nelly"? You know that person who has nothing nice to say about anyone or anything? Have you ever been in the presence of someone who is a positive thinking person? You know that person who sees the best in everyone and everything? Ever notice the difference you feel being around these types of personalities? I know I do. If I can be totally honest here, it drives me crazy to be around negative people. Now I'm not talking about people who just make negative comments here and there, heck even I do that. I'm talking about those who constantly complain or whine and get angry about everything and everyone. Those individuals who are never happy no matter what is going on. You know some people like that don't you?
How awesome do you feel after you've been around positive people? Isn't it amazing how our minds work throughout our entire body, spirit and soul when we listen to positive and encouraging talk? Listen I know I've said it before but I will continue to say it over and over and over again until we all get it through our thick skulls...what we put into our minds affects our physical bodies, our heart, our words and our lives. What we think about, what we listen to, what we watch, what we read affects us, or should I say infects us. One of the greatest diseases of our times is our thoughts and they wreak havoc on our mind and they infect our mind, therefore infecting our bodies with stress, therefore destroying our physical health.
Just like what we eat affects our physical bodies, our mind affects our physical bodies also. So let me ask some questions....
What are you thinking about?
What are you reading?
What are you listening to?
What are you watching?
What words are you speaking?
All these things affects our minds and thus will either bring life or death to our bodies. I tend to think about it this way....if Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, could keep a positive attitude while on this earth so can I. He saw peoples hearts, He knew the truth about everyone's sins and secrets, He knew the worst in the people He met with, yet His attitude was positive. He thought about God in heaven, He listened to His Father in heaven, He saw the miracles He performed and the lives He transformed, He spoke God's truth. He filled His mind with loving, godly, true, noble and holy thoughts.
Philippians 4:8-9 (The Message) Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who make everything work together, will work you into His most excellent harmonies.
Today I challenge all of us, me included, to think about what we're thinking about. What's infecting our minds today? How can we change our thinking and therefore change our minds?
