Calm, Cool, and Collected

Happy Friday Friend!!  We have experienced a huge amount of news this week.  Whether they be accurate reports or rumors, they cause us to sit up and think.  We have a lot of thoughts swirling around in our minds.  Worry thoughts.  Negative thoughts.  Good thoughts.  Scary thoughts.  Busyness thoughts.  Stressful thoughts.  Biblical thoughts.  National security thoughts.  Job search thoughts.  Futuristic thoughts.  Regrets of the past-thoughts.  Health-related thoughts.  Guilty thoughts.  Parental thoughts.  Churchy thoughts.  Sexual thoughts.  Foul-lanuaged thoughts.  Angry thoughts.  Food thoughts.  Event-planning thoughts.  And it goes on and on and on.

I just listed lots of thoughts and some I left out.  The fact is our mind can be a chaotic place.  And indeed, it is a place.  It is a place that has rooms.  Rooms that we choose to enter.  Please get what I just said.  We choose to enter certain rooms in our minds.

Do you feel confused?  Are your thoughts unorganized?    Do they dart from one subject to another?

Lots of us live in an overwhelming environment and our minds are no exception.  Overwhelmed.  Does that describe you today?  Do you have a hard time focusing your thoughts?  Are they out of control?  Control.  Why do thoughts have control?  Well, they shouldn't.  You have control.  Oh, I know that at times it feels like you don't, but actually you do.  You can manage and exercise restraint over your thoughts.  2 Corinthians 10:5 (GWT) says:  "...We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ.  Let me give you an example of how this works:  identify what your favorite food is.  Let's use fried chichen for an idea.  Now, smell the chicken cooking on your moma's stove.  Your mom has set it before you on a plate and your mouth is watering for it.  You pick it up using your fingers.  It is greasy and crumbly.  As you place it in your mouth you taste salty and feel the crunchiness of it.  Now, lets end the food thought.  Can you do it?  Are you still tasting the chicken?  Are you now hungry?  Do you see what I have accomplished with a food thought?  Your taste buds reacted as well as the saliva glands.  Your stomach became prepared with enzymes to recieve the food.  Your fingers may even feel greasy.  Just one type of thought did all of that to you.  Imagine all of the types of thoughts flowing through your mind at this time and the physical effects they are having.  It is a real thing.  But the wonderful thing is that you reacted to a thought I gave you.  You can talk to yourself and stop thoughts as easily as they start.

Remember the rooms in your mind?  The first room is the conscious.  This is the upper level of mental life.  You are aware of what is going on.  Next is the subconscious--which is just below the threshold of consciousness.  And then you enter the unconsciousness.  Webster defines this room as:  the psychic apparatus that does not ordinarily enter the individual's awareness and that is manifested esp. by slips of the tongue or dissociated acts or in dreams.

As you start to manage your thoughts you will experience a sort of let-down.  Don't be discouraged over this.  This will be your sub- and unconsciousness fighting against the grain of what it knows to be true.  After all, you have fed it wrong information all of these years and it is fighting to keep what it thinks is right.

Another type of room that you have in your mind is the area you go into to escape.  You may be escaping the other chaotic thoughts going on.  You may be wallowing in your self-pity which you find, oddly enough, pleasurable.  It is a comfortable place.  And in saying that, the thoughts of God found in His word may not feel comfortable to you and your consciousnesses because you haven't thought of them as truth.  You have been grounded by other foundations.  No doubt, most come from your family background.  Some from your spouse.  Others from co-workers and employers.  You may inflict yourself with wrong info.  Just give it some thought and examine your mind from this point of view.

I also want you to know that thoughts are things that are measured by brain scans and have shapes.  A negative thought has thorns and Dr. Caroline Leaf, a neuroscientist, says these thorns actually cause pain.  Think about it.  It is true.  Negative thoughts disrupt peacefulness.  That is why you have a hard time feeling peaceful.  Did you remember that peace is a confidence element and a fruit of the Spirit?  Our Holy Spirit is here to help us, thank you Lord!!!!

Listen to The Message as it proclaims 2 Corinthians 10:4-5:  "We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosopohies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ."  What a wonderful gift--powerful God-tools!  Satan doesn't want you to use them though.  But let's annoy him anyway and use them.

Did you notice the title of todays blog?  I have the words:  Calm.  Cool.  Collected.  written on a bright orange card sitting on my desk where I can see it often.  Guess what I notice when I say the word calm?  I catch myself taking a good breath.  You are probably aware that relaxation breathing causes peacefulness and calmness.  Just the word calm makes you breathe.  That's the power of words and thoughts.

Here's a good one to journal for 21 days to get into your sub and unconsciousness.  It will replace the bad one that is already there.  Try this:  Proverbs 14:30 (AMP)  "A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones."  And add:  2 Cor. 10: 4-5 (MSG) "I use my powerful God-tools for smashing my warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting my every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of my life shaped by Christ."  Thank you Lord for giving me a calm mind.

Be sure to personalize scripture that speaks to your area of need.  It is ok to do this because God wants you to hear Him and take His word personally.  It changes your heart and mind and body.

Thank you Lord for Your amazingness!!
Now sit up straight, shoulders back and smile!!
Love to all,  Wynndy

Picture of my office window

For all who are curious of what I am looking at as I type on the computer--now you know.  I love nature and the out of doors.  Whitney and Cody are teaching me how to apply pictures -- so hopefully my blogs will be more interesting.  Have a great week, Wynndy