The battle of my thoughts....

So many things run through my mind, as does every woman's mind in a split second, much less all throughout the day!  Laundry, children, husbands, errands, grocery list, family, school, homework, dinner...and oh yeah...my devotion time.  Unfortunately, it runs in that order for me sometimes, and I am confident most of you can sympathize with this!  Have you ever really thought about how much does run through your mind....how much of it is positive?  How much of it is negative?  Unfortunately, our natural temptation is to think negatively...it doesn't take any effort.  Effort comes into play when we grasp positive thoughts.

Joyce Meyer states, "Positive minds full of faith and hope produce positive lives.  The opposite is also true; negative minds full of fear and doubt produce negative lives, which can ultimately destroy your life".   In my personal struggles today, I am examining how many times my innate nature is to be negative, and boy, is it a lot!  When I am at wits end, I think negative, when I am frustrated with a loved one, I think negative, when I have had enough with all the children, I think negative.

Why do you think we do that?  In my opinion, it is because of sin in our lives...Isaiah 64:6 says, "We are all infected and impure with sin.  When we display our righteous deeds, that are nothing but filthy rags.  Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind".  Romans 3:23 states, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".  Ultimately, what does all of this mean?

It means that we are forgiven, we are made whole, and we can effortlessly come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior...does this mean we automatically forget our negative nature?  NOPE!  We have to train our minds to not go that way!!!  We fight things in our mind every single day...every second of the day...so how do we decide to change our way of stinkin' thinking'?  We take a stand and say:  "I'll never give up!  God's on my side. He loves me, and He's helping me!  I'm going to make it" (Joyce Meyer).

I am trying every single day to rewire my brain.  Time and time again I fail, but I know that God is the master healer and fixer!  Discouragement is not my nature, I want to learn to think in a Godly spirit and gradually I will develop His way of thinking, naturally.  This does not mean that I will not ever, never, ever have a negative thought, but this does mean that when I have a negative thought or idea, I will bow on my knees and ask my heavenly father for forgiveness and healing.  I do not want to ever stop trying, nor do I want to give up on my brain, I just want to reprogram it to do better!

Let me pray for you today.

Father in Heaven,
Bless my friends that are reading this right now.
Give them the courage to reprogram their brains to be deterred from negative thinking.
Whatever they are facing or experiencing in their lives right now, give them the strength to face it positively, full force, unwilling to give up on what your desires and expectations are for us as Christians.
If there is any one that is reading this now that does not know you as their Savior,
Lord, I pray that you allow my words to touch their heart,
That they feel the power of your hands on them as I pray for your guidance and expectations for my life to be positively influenced.

In your name I pray,
AMEN!

"You cannot give away something you don't have"...

I have started following Joyce Meyer's blog, and tonight it just so happens, while watching American Idol I decided to click through her website and I can honestly say WOW!  God is amazing!  She has a section about loving God, yourself, and others.

This spoke to me because I don't have a problem loving God, however loving myself?  Wow that is a tall task somedays, and then to throw into the equation loving others?  To understand love, I want to look at Webster's definition of love:

Love-noun 

1.  a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person

2.  a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection for a parent, child, or friend

3.  sexual passion or desire

4.  a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart

5.  used as a term of endearment, affection, or the like

Love-verb

1.  to have love or affection for

2.  to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person)

3.  to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in

4.  to need or require; benefit greatly from

5.  to embrace and kiss (someone)

The commonalities in the word love for me are tender, passionate, affection.  Whether we look at it as a noun or a verb, God tells us to love.  Deuteronomy 6:5 provides us with this commandment, "you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and with your entire being and with all your might." With every single element of your being.  Showing God how we love Him is difficult sometimes.  It requires our obedience.  It is a commandment...not an option.  

To love yourself...to love myself!  "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31). Maybe not for you, but for me I fall short on this one.  While evaluating myself, I saw the quote "You cannot give something away that you don't have in you".  Then I thought back over quotes I have heard, and another hit me in the face..."to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world".  How can I be the world, I am Tammy...and then I said, "Tammy, think of one person you don't love"...and I can't think of anyone I don't love...I may not like them, but I love them.  I love people!  Therefore, I have to love myself.  To love myself, do you think that means I like myself 100% of the time?  Nope, nope, and nope! I have faults, I have cellulite, I have glasses, and I sometimes have bad breath!  But you know what, I do love everybody...so I have to love me!

When I think of this, I realized that God's love is a gift, and we are commanded to "love out loud" (Joyce Meyer).  With Valentine's Day coming up, I want to challenge you to think of someone you need to love. Think of ways to show your love and to let His people see how you love GOD!  There is truly only one happiness in life, to love and to be loved.

Easy, huh?  Nope!  How many times do you feel unloved?  How many times, as mom's do we feel taken advantage of?  How many times do we feel not pretty enough to be loved?  I will answer, with the energy of love in my life, I want to be motivated to be healed by God to love people, even to love people that do not want to be loved...God is love and you cannot, I repeat cannot give his love away if you do not have it to give.

Put your love in action---reach out and love others.....