Welcome to all of you lovely people!! Join me for a conversation about pleasing. Pleasing has to do with striving for delight or satisfaction. I enjoyed a pleasing pasttime yesterday. Keevin, Macey and I went yard-saleing. I found an awesome round coffee table in really good shape for only $5.00. Love it!!!! And I scored a couple of unique serving dishes also for $5.00. It was a good day for me. But I have to admit that it was a temporary diversion from something clogging my mind. In fact, I wasn't able to settle down and write this blog last night like I usually do.
What was wrong with me? Well, I heard a comment, and that comment sent me straight back to childhood and some adulthood events and my mind went into a frenzy and frantic state. The comment didn't change the way I feel about the subject that we were discussing--so why did it have any effect on me at all? I started journaling and jotting down words of feelings that came to my mind. One of my sentiments I journaled was "I constantly find myself scanning people's reactions to my words or actions."
I have already established with myself and God that my childhood was influenced by worry of what others think of me, my family, etc. It may have been rooted in our church's teachings. Whatever a child is inapproriately influenced with--it is something that has to be dealt with and has to be dealt with God's way. I thought I had previously dealt with it but I guess when I first attacked the wrongful thinking system I didn't attach faith with the words I had used in my 21 day journal note. Just a reminder that faith is # 7 in the confidence elements found in Galatians 5: 22-23.
One of the feeling words that I jotted down was stifled. I have always been a free thinker but my free thinking has not always been encouraged. I feel stifled when someone discourages me not to express myself. It's a claustrophobic-type feeling. I also feel frustrated, as if that person wants to control my thinking and stop the path that I am taking.
I looked up the word discourage and it means to deprive of courage or confidence. If you have been reading my material very long--you have figured out that I jumped on the confidence word in the definition of discourage. It was not in God's design for us to be discouraged and not feel confident. In fact throughout the Old Testament He commands different ones to be courageous. I especially like Psalm 31:24 (AMP) " Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord!"
When I find myself confronted with this stifled feeling-my mind goes into a frenzy and frantic state. I find it very hard to focus--hence, my inability to write this blog last night. But I suppose that God had big plans for my uncomfortableness. So, frantic means: emotionally out of control with anger and frustration. Marked by fast and nervous, disordered, or anxiety-driven activity. As I wrote down the definition I recognized some feeling words I had journaled: anxious, nervous and restless and irritable. And frenzy means a temporary madness. Emotional agitation.
One thing I recognize is the people who make discouraging comments about my way of thinking are probably reacting from a cloudy, distorted view themselves. I try very, very hard to follow God's view of things from His Word and so I feel that my way of thinking is close to His. I realize that I am not perfect and am wrong occasionally but at the beginning of this blog I stated that the comment made to me did not change my point of view--so, in that, I feel confident.
You can see how Satan uses discouragement, stifling, frustration, franticness, and frenziness against God's work. Can you see how those feelings are the opposite of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control? I was none of those things while suffering from Satan's attacks.
So, how do I undo what Satan has done? I rewire my thinking, again, but this time with the faith of Jesus Christ given to me by the Holy Spirit. Here's my 21 day journal note:
Yes Lord, I heard that comment of discouragement and I felt the effects of it, too. I know that Satan is the one who wants me to feel stifled, anxious, nervous and frantic. Satan wants me to stop and fall flat on my face but Lord, I am your slave. I work for You and You only. Satan, leave me alone! Jesus Christ is my Lord!! Galatians 1:10 (NCV) asks: "Do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No, God is the One I am trying to please. Am I trying to please people? If I still wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." and Colossians 3:21 (The Message) urges: "Parents, don't come down too hard on your children or you'll crush their spirits." Holy Father, I refuse to listen to Satan through people's comments. I will not be crushed by their words. Instead, I keep working on because of Your courage and hope and strength. Thank You for Your many wonderful gifts to me.
End of journal note.
A couple years ago I was struggling to pinpoint my identity. I had asked God that morning to "father" me. As I was chasing down some definitions in the dictionary for a Bible study that I was writing I stumbled across this word: wynd. I recognized it as my name--in the dictionary. WOW!! And the definition is dramatic as well, at least for me. It means: to wind, proceed, go. to twist, a very narrow street.
God was telling me that I am to keep moving, going forward with whatever plans He has for me and not be afraid of the narrow parts and the twisting roads as they lead to an interesting path with a beautiful view. Matthew 7:13-14 (NCV) says: "Enter through the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the road is wide that leads to hell, and many people enter through that gate. But the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to true life. Only a few people find that road." Ture Life. That's what I want to experience and I can say that God has helped me through some hurdles and bumps in the road to live a better, truer life than what I had a couple years ago. Thank You Sweet, Amazing Lord!!
Friend, find your true life--God will show you if you ask Him. Ask Him!!!
Love to all, Wynndy
