Last fall I attended a conference in Atlanta that was put on by Right Now Media. When I checked in, I received all the information I would need for the conference plus two books. I glanced at the titles and authors to see if I recognized either of them. “Nope, never heard of them,” I said to myself and put them in my backpack.
Day two of the conference rolled around, and we were all gathered in the large group space for the morning session. Due to travel delays, the speaker for the morning wasn’t going to make it in time, so they changed up the speaking order. As I sat there looking at the resources I was given when I checked in, I came across a flyer for one of the books. The book had a sticker on the cover that said uncorrected proof. “Surely I will put this book on the back of the bookshelf when I get back to my office,” I thought to myself.
The lights went down, and the speaker appeared on the stage. Her name was Jennie Allen, author of the book I had just dismissed. I laughed to myself but was quite intrigued to hear what she was going to say. I listened and became very engaged in her stories and lessons about why she wrote her book. The title, “Get Out of Your Head - Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts," was about the spiritual battle we have going on in our own heads, how we allow the enemy to dictate how we think about God and how He is at work in our lives. She dove into psychology and the anatomy of our brains. It was brilliant! I left that session uplifted by the teaching that had just taken place on the stage.
As a person with a great interest in psychology and why we think the way we think, I added the book to my list for 2020. Highlighting away as I read, I came across one section about “thoughts.” Researchers say we think, on average, 30,000 thoughts a day. If we average sixteen waking hours, that means we think approximately thirty one thoughts per minute! That makes me tired just thinking about it! How many of those 30,000 thoughts do you think are negative? According to some research, negative thoughts attribute for a staggering 70%! Can you believe that? It’s no wonder we sometimes get down on ourselves.
But my message to you today isn’t to make you focus on all those negative thoughts we think in a day, but rather to get you to focus on the small changes you can make. If you can change one negative thought to a positive thought, I think that, after time, you will see a shift and be less likely to focus on the negatives because you will be looking for the positives.
2 Do not be conformed to this world,[a] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.[b]
Romans 12:2
Paul reminds us in the book of Romans about the renewing of our minds. We should not be swept up in the things of this world, but should fix our eyes on the One who is above all.
We have a choice. We can choose joy.
Get outside, have a family game night, love on your neighbors and make memories!
