Beautiful Minds {Part 2}

So…since my post last month, I have continued to focus on the mind, how important it is to think properly, and the significant role it plays in determining the course of our days, weeks, months, and years. I’ve felt strongly since the beginning of this year that the Lord really wants me to dig into this and understand how He created and designed us so that our lives flow from decisions, choices, and emotions…all originating from our thoughts.

When I look at my family and some of the persistent issues we’ve faced with communication, respect, and persevering through difficulties, I see so clearly things have only gotten better as we’ve taken our minds to the Lord, acknowledged that we have some thought cycles that need healing, and started working tangibly to walk out our healing. Here’s just a sample of life-changing things I’ve learned on our journey so far:

• Almost all of the conflicts with my teenage son stemmed from inaccurate and/or just plain false ideas and thoughts either one or both of us had. For example, I had to challenge his thoughts about authority and how God, and society, expect us to respond to people who hold authority over us. When I just kept trying to assert authority, it didn’t work. I had to dissect his belief system, discover where it came from, and then get guidance from God on how to show the falsity of those beliefs.
•  Each thought we have has an emotion attached to it, and together they form our attitudes. If we have bad attitudes, it’s either because the thought is bad, the emotion is bad, or both the thought and accompanying emotion are bad. When our emotions seem out of control and on a downward spiral, a look at our thought cycle will hold clues to how to recover our emotional equilibrium.
• It’s very difficult, even with the Holy Spirit’s help, to rewire our brains so that they more readily tend toward what’s true, honest, excellent, and praise worthy, and it’s absolutely impossible to achieve health in our minds simply by exerting greater levels of willpower without His help.
• Our thought patterns–negative and positive–get transmitted to our children, and often what we react to the most strongly in them is simply a mirror of our own contaminated thought life.

Our homes are too often overflowing with tension, conflict, unresolved offenses, and simmering resentment. We know the Lord wants better for us. We know He is the Prince of Peace. We know He wants our minds to be vibrant, healthy, and ready for action. Sometimes it just seems like an insurmountable task.

We can all have hope for the healing that we need in this area of our lives. But it will take an unwavering commitment and lots of support. Maybe we can help each other…