Who's bidding for the power of your mind today?
Who will win?
Worry: the litany of things that could happen that cycles over and over in your mind
Discontent: the desire to have a life like someone else instead of enjoying your own station and giftings
Anger: the seething of old wounds or recent injustices
Fatigue: the overscheduling of your day that limits intentional and essential time for rest and recovery
Clutter: the failure to throw away, give away, and restore to order your living spaces
There's quite an auction going on in your head. You and the other voices that compete for your mind are the auctioneers, for sure, but may I give you this hope: you are the owner of the building and no one holds an auction in your building without your permission.
Today I am asking for help to keep my auction house under control: Jesus, help me cut short every auction that begins to compete for the power of my mind. Teach me about You so my mind can enjoy your love and strength as the template for my thinking.
18 February 2012
17 February 2012
Grudges and the Power of Cumulative
We have considered the seeds of grudges this week.
What does grudge-holding do to our health?
Cycling through inevitable grudges frequently, removing the seeds often through prayer and restoring strained relationships is healthy and necessary. This work may actually strengthen our health like occasional illness--our bodies meet opposition and overcome it, leaving us with new tools to fight.
This power of cumulative--repeated action of resolving grudges--works in our favor.
However, it can dismantle our health just as easily. Grudges held over time create stress in our body as our minds and hearts replay the hard feelings frequently. We "learn" this pathway to dealing with grudges so new hard feelings in new relationships and encounters simply get added and the stress on our bodies is compounded.
We awaken in our forties, fifties and beyond and wonder why we can't fight pain and the negatives of aging with the same strength we once had.
We gave it away...our strength, that is. We gave it to the garden of grudges that is now growing unchecked in our hearts.
How does your garden grow?
What does grudge-holding do to our health?
Cycling through inevitable grudges frequently, removing the seeds often through prayer and restoring strained relationships is healthy and necessary. This work may actually strengthen our health like occasional illness--our bodies meet opposition and overcome it, leaving us with new tools to fight.
This power of cumulative--repeated action of resolving grudges--works in our favor.
However, it can dismantle our health just as easily. Grudges held over time create stress in our body as our minds and hearts replay the hard feelings frequently. We "learn" this pathway to dealing with grudges so new hard feelings in new relationships and encounters simply get added and the stress on our bodies is compounded.
We awaken in our forties, fifties and beyond and wonder why we can't fight pain and the negatives of aging with the same strength we once had.
We gave it away...our strength, that is. We gave it to the garden of grudges that is now growing unchecked in our hearts.
How does your garden grow?
16 February 2012
A Little Help With Our Grudges
Is there another voice out there helping us plant the seeds of grudges?
According to the Bible, long ago, wasn't there a voice that tried to turn Eve against the loving mandate of God?
God told Adam and Eve they had this whole amazing Garden of Eden to eat from, tend to and enjoy, avoiding only one tree in the garden.
The serpent, who had (has) a huge grudge against the power and goodness of God, used his voice to plant the seed of a grudge in Eve toward her God: did God say you couldn't have the fruit of ANY tree?
No, no, replies Eve...only that one tree.
Is it possible that the seed is planted between the serpent's question and Eve's answer? Could she have the whisper of the thought that God would deny them access to the beauty and nutrition of the garden? What else makes her fall for the outright lie that next comes from the serpent: oh, you won't die if you eat from the tree...you will just be like God and He knows it.
Let's try the process on a typical grudge of today. Your sister-in-law wants to have the family gathering at her house instead of the family homeplace because she has small children that can't travel as well as your family of older children.
Do you hear: does she care at all about your schedule or your needs?
You think...of course she cares about our family...or does she?
And away it grows...the grudge, that is.
There is another voice out there. It seeks to lie, deceive and in any way derail the truth of love in our relationships.
Consider if this voice is trying to grow a nasty garden in your heart.
According to the Bible, long ago, wasn't there a voice that tried to turn Eve against the loving mandate of God?
God told Adam and Eve they had this whole amazing Garden of Eden to eat from, tend to and enjoy, avoiding only one tree in the garden.
The serpent, who had (has) a huge grudge against the power and goodness of God, used his voice to plant the seed of a grudge in Eve toward her God: did God say you couldn't have the fruit of ANY tree?
No, no, replies Eve...only that one tree.
Is it possible that the seed is planted between the serpent's question and Eve's answer? Could she have the whisper of the thought that God would deny them access to the beauty and nutrition of the garden? What else makes her fall for the outright lie that next comes from the serpent: oh, you won't die if you eat from the tree...you will just be like God and He knows it.
Let's try the process on a typical grudge of today. Your sister-in-law wants to have the family gathering at her house instead of the family homeplace because she has small children that can't travel as well as your family of older children.
Do you hear: does she care at all about your schedule or your needs?
You think...of course she cares about our family...or does she?
And away it grows...the grudge, that is.
There is another voice out there. It seeks to lie, deceive and in any way derail the truth of love in our relationships.
Consider if this voice is trying to grow a nasty garden in your heart.
15 February 2012
You've Never Seen a Garden Grow...
...without intent, planning, and nurturing.
Gardens are a result of choices of what to grow, a knowledge of how to grow it, and the hard work to set it in motion.
This week we are examining grudges and how we can host them in our heart, that is, grow a virtual garden of grudges that we tend to, making them grow into something nasty and hard to dig up.
We know grudges begin as seeds. We probably know everything we need to know about grudges--so why do they rule our homes, our workplaces, our politics and our world?
Perhaps it is because the only way to keep grudge seeds at bay is to sow deliberate seeds of love. If you have a grudge against a person with seemingly good reason, the way to offset it is plant seeds of love for that very person in your heart.
You think of them...you choose to love them. You face them...you love them through kindness and forgiveness. You talk about them...you choose loving words. This is the work of love, to resist the easy path of collecting hard feelings from yourself and others who choose to collaborate. Love seeds are the hardest to plant if they are replacing grudge seeds.
You've never seen a garden of love grow without intent, planning and nurturing.
Gardens are a result of choices of what to grow, a knowledge of how to grow it, and the hard work to set it in motion.
This week we are examining grudges and how we can host them in our heart, that is, grow a virtual garden of grudges that we tend to, making them grow into something nasty and hard to dig up.
We know grudges begin as seeds. We probably know everything we need to know about grudges--so why do they rule our homes, our workplaces, our politics and our world?
Perhaps it is because the only way to keep grudge seeds at bay is to sow deliberate seeds of love. If you have a grudge against a person with seemingly good reason, the way to offset it is plant seeds of love for that very person in your heart.
You think of them...you choose to love them. You face them...you love them through kindness and forgiveness. You talk about them...you choose loving words. This is the work of love, to resist the easy path of collecting hard feelings from yourself and others who choose to collaborate. Love seeds are the hardest to plant if they are replacing grudge seeds.
You've never seen a garden of love grow without intent, planning and nurturing.
14 February 2012
The Nurture of a Grudge
Grudges only get started in our heart if we grant them permission.
But once the seeds are granted that fertile soil, oh, do they grow.
Grudges devour churches, friendships, healthy bodies, and the best of our days that God has laid out for us.
We harbor tiny, secret grudges against adult siblings and extended family.
Grudges use up physical energy and derail our common sense.
All of these results begin with our simple nurture as a host heart. What begins as two opposing positions in a situation does not get talked through with love, even with an agreement to disagree (again, with love and respect for each other's right to position). It gets stalemated into hard feelings.
Then, time + finding one other person to agree with your position = the sprouting of a new grudge.
And away it grows, fueled by the replaying of why you are right, thus making the other person wrong.
The new grudge will either: grow away into something big and nasty, trying to create permanent division or go away because we simply quit granting permission to our heart to host it.
It's our call.
But once the seeds are granted that fertile soil, oh, do they grow.
Grudges devour churches, friendships, healthy bodies, and the best of our days that God has laid out for us.
We harbor tiny, secret grudges against adult siblings and extended family.
Grudges use up physical energy and derail our common sense.
All of these results begin with our simple nurture as a host heart. What begins as two opposing positions in a situation does not get talked through with love, even with an agreement to disagree (again, with love and respect for each other's right to position). It gets stalemated into hard feelings.
Then, time + finding one other person to agree with your position = the sprouting of a new grudge.
And away it grows, fueled by the replaying of why you are right, thus making the other person wrong.
The new grudge will either: grow away into something big and nasty, trying to create permanent division or go away because we simply quit granting permission to our heart to host it.
It's our call.
13 February 2012
The Seed of a Grudge
It's Monday...again.
This week we are going to deal with the seeds of grudges. They are real and they ruin your day, your week, your relationships, your body. It could be that Monday is not the dread of today but rather the replaying of the hard feelings that started growing in your heart.
How do those seeds get lodged in our hearts? Because we grant them permission.
You say, "Here is fertile soil. Plant yourselves here in my heart."
For some reason, we are wired to host hard feelings more easily than to do the work to standing up to them and moving our hearts and minds over and over to positive thoughts and actions. If we find one person to validate our hard feelings against someone, we have all the fertilizer we need to grow something really nasty and hard to dig up.
To keep the seeds of hard feelings from planting in our hearts, we have to act with maturity, taking these hard thoughts to God, asking Him to deal with them, and asking forgiveness for any time we've already spent engaged in these hard feelings.
My least favorite God-position in the Bible is in Matthew 6: You can't get forgiveness from God without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part. (MSG)
Again...it's Monday. Make it energizing by acknowledging those seeds and taking a few minutes to get them out of your heart.
This week we are going to deal with the seeds of grudges. They are real and they ruin your day, your week, your relationships, your body. It could be that Monday is not the dread of today but rather the replaying of the hard feelings that started growing in your heart.
How do those seeds get lodged in our hearts? Because we grant them permission.
You say, "Here is fertile soil. Plant yourselves here in my heart."
For some reason, we are wired to host hard feelings more easily than to do the work to standing up to them and moving our hearts and minds over and over to positive thoughts and actions. If we find one person to validate our hard feelings against someone, we have all the fertilizer we need to grow something really nasty and hard to dig up.
To keep the seeds of hard feelings from planting in our hearts, we have to act with maturity, taking these hard thoughts to God, asking Him to deal with them, and asking forgiveness for any time we've already spent engaged in these hard feelings.
My least favorite God-position in the Bible is in Matthew 6: You can't get forgiveness from God without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part. (MSG)
Again...it's Monday. Make it energizing by acknowledging those seeds and taking a few minutes to get them out of your heart.
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