Prepare Yourself Mentally

6 Sep

“Your mind will always believe everything you tell it. Feed it faith. Feed it truth. Feed it love.”  ~ Unknown

We all know “Gloomy Gus” and “Nervous Nellie”.  We all know those who dwell upon doom and gloom and who feed upon negativity.  They are not very pleasant or happy people to be around and they have the capacity to bring everyone in a group down.  Their negativity really affects those around them.

Perhaps the reason that it affects us so is because they are so totally immersed in it themselves.  We may think that things are going well, that life is good, and that there is nothing about which to worry.  However, ten minutes with them providing both an aura of gloom as well as several “facts” about why we should be concerned are often all that it takes to steer our affect.

They make us miserable because they are miserable.  And they are miserable, most of the time, because they make themselves miserable.  No one else has done anything to them.  They are the ones who feed themselves negativity.  They view the world through a negative lens and shape their own thoughts and feelings based upon their view of the world.

It does not have to be so.

As much as we can make ourselves doom and gloom people, we can also make ourselves positive people.  “Your mind will always believe everything you tell it.  Feed it faith.  Feed it truth.  Feed it love.”  There is a lot to that quote.  Without going all super spy on you, there are many articles about how people can do things like beat polygraphs.  How can they beat a lie detector?  Because they tell themselves, over and over again, a version of events that become the “truth” to them.  When they are asked questions, they have so prepared themselves mentally, that they appear to be speaking the truth.  It is the truth.  Their truth.

Our minds are great and wonderful creations of God.  They allow us to consider the infinite possibilities of God interacting in our lives.  They help to steer our course here on earth.  They guide us based upon the input that we give to them.  But, just like the old joke about computers — computers make very fast, very accurate, mistakes (based upon the information programmed in them by fallible operators) — we can make mistakes about our lives, our faith, and our God simply by telling ourselves the wrong things, the negative things, over and over again.

Be positive about God.  He is real.  He is good .  He truly cares about you.  Be positive about your own life.  You make an incredible difference in many people’s lives and have the capacity to make an incredible difference in many more.  Be positive about your future.  God is calling you to great things here on earth and even greater glory in His Kingdom.

Tell yourself those things each and every day and anything negative that comes your way will simply bounce off of you.

FAITH ACTION:  Make sure that you remain sharp today by giving yourself only good things upon which to dwell.