Food For Thought

I have been studying a very interesting book which has given me a lot of 'food for thought'. So I wanted to share some of my revelations, questions and thoughts on something I recently studied.

First of all the name of the book is The Secret Things of God by Dr. Henry Cloud. I'll be discussing some points that was raised from a chapter entitled 'Your thoughts affect the way you feel'.

In his discussion, the author shared about a researcher named Martin Seligman who was actually conducting studies to show that this was true. This researcher was able to identify three characteristically negative ways that some people interpret, or explain, the things that happen in their lives. I will list them out:

(1) Personal explanations: where when something difficult happens, it's because something is 'wrong' with you,

(2) Pervasive explanations: where you take one incident and convince yourself that it's happening throughout your life,

(3)Permanent explanations: where one incident is seen as something permanent in your life & will never change.

To me, these results were very eye-opening because I was able to see where my thoughts were affected by what I had experienced in being mentored. I think all three was used in some form or fashion to convince me of how wrong whatever I had done, made me a 'bad' person. As a result, I've had to do a lot of re-wiring in my mind, to not only change my own thoughts but how I think about others. It's been a difficult process but the positive results are so worth it!

The cool thing about this chapter is that the author then went on to explain how God does not not use explanations like that to judge us but takes one incident at a time, as it is. Truly this is unconditional love!

What if God did treat us like that though? Imagine Jesus speaking to the adulterous woman & when she decides to follow him, says to her, "Well I'm not sure you're suited to be part of my crowd because you seem to have some commitment issues." Or in the parable of the prodigal son, the father tells him when he returns, "I'm not sure you should return because you've spent all your inheritance & it may happen again." It just goes to show that Jesus didn't dwell too much on the past but rather on moving forward.

It's challenging to be like Jesus in that sense! It's so hard because we dwell on our feelings of hurt & betrayal, anger even, especially when we're trying to help others. I think at times we make it personal. But if we truly love others & have a vision for them, I think the decision to love like Jesus would go a long way in helping them.

So think about your thought processes: are they positive or negative? And if negative, what has made them so?

I hope that we will take captive our thoughts & make them obedient to Christ, so that we will be positive about, not only our lives, but those around us.