To be honest, most of the time I feel like
I am losing my mind. The struggle is real and fierce to not let negative thoughts overwhelm the truth of the cross. The noise and
distraction of the world bombard me with so many things contrary to what I know
God wants for my life. It is easy and comfortable to fall into the cycle of
being critical of everyone around me, especially my family. It's more natural
to place blame and find fault with my workplace, the church, the government,
Ebola carriers, traffic cameras, bad parents, the education system, bank
bailouts, and everything else in between.
I have a choice on how I am going to think
and what filter I'm going to use to respond. If left to my own devices, I would
give into my fears and critical nature. I would run around screaming, "The sky is
falling!" and rip apart everyone from the McDonalds cashier who can't take my
order correctly to my husband who can't seem to get his calendar organized.
But when I said yes to following Jesus I
knew I could not trust my own stinking thinking. I knew the person I was in my
past was not the person I wanted to become. I knew that in order to change my
thoughts I had to "capture" them. What does this really mean? How do
I put this into practice? Literally, when a negative, ugly or critical thought
comes into my mind, I stop and start praying it away. I try to replace it with
a truth I have learned from God's word, maybe even quote scripture. Sometimes,
I ask God to take it out of my brain by reminding me of a positive memory to replace
it. I also have been known to talk to myself, "Lord, change my heart,
change my attitude, and help me not kill anyone." (Repeat as needed, even
if it’s over and over again within a few minutes).
Does this always work? NOOOOO! I also make
the choice to not capture my thoughts and give in to my fears, frustrations,
anger, and critical nature. Usually, this does not turn out so well and I have
to go back and apologize to someone. When I listen to lies and untruths it is
easy to become overwhelmed, depressed, doubtful, and foolish! The cycle of
letting my thoughts run amok is addicting and difficult to break once I get
rolling. It’s amazing how fast relationships start breaking down when people
sit in the "crappy" thinking for too long. Your viewpoint of God can
even start changing and that leads to nowhere good!
So to answer my friend's question, one of
the things that have helped me the most in my life is capturing my thoughts!
Otherwise I could see myself losing my mind :)
"We
destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture
their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ."
2 Cor
10:5
