Читать книгу Magnetic Christianity: Using Your God-Given Gifts to Build the Kingdom - Gus J.D. Lloyd - Страница 9

When I was growing up, my mom had a bunch of favorite sayings. Things like, “Go fly a kite!”, “Go jump in a lake”, “Take a long walk off a short pier” and “Go play in traffic” were standard fare around our house. I was always waiting for “Go stick a penny in a light socket,” but that one never caught on. Now, before you go judging my mom as an unfit mother, you need to understand something. You see, Mom and Dad had six kids in a span of eight years. At any given time Mom had three in diapers. Then in the later years, they had six, count ‘em SIX teenagers. Sanity in those days was surely elusive. Walk a mile in those shoes, my friend. I’m guessing you would come up with some choice sayings, too.

One of Mom’s favorite sayings was really a prayer. And it was a prayer that was always answered. How do I know? Because Mom is still around to this day, and Mom is one of the most positive people I know. Mom would lift her eyes heavenward and cry, “Give me strength!” And while she may not have felt it at the moment, that strength always came. And it came from the source of all strength, Jesus Christ. The same source you and I can tap into every moment of every day and receive all the strength we need to accomplish whatever God wants us to accomplish.

I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.

Philippians 4:13

Lastly, we must remember that the things we think about are going to be the things we bring into our reality. We must always keep our minds focused on positive things. What we put into our minds is what is going to come out. If we keep feeding our mind with negative thoughts, then those negative thoughts will come out of us and we will attract negative things and negative people into our lives. This may sound like so much new age mumbo jumbo to some, but tell that to St. Paul. In his letter to the Philippians, he exhorted them to put only good stuff into their minds. We would do well to follow his advice.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8

I would like to offer a tip that has been very helpful to me in my struggle to keep my mind on positive things. It is an ancient practice. Whenever you find yourself drifting into negative thoughts, find a word or a phrase that will help snap your mind back to where it should be. Some people call this a mantra; others refer to it as a centering prayer. Call it what you will, but I have found it very helpful. There have been two that I have used throughout my life. The first is, “God, come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me.” (From the Liturgy of the Hours) The other is, “Son of David, have pity on me.” (Mark 10:48) These brief little prayers are reminders to me that I need to rethink my thinking. Find a word or phrase that you are comfortable with and use it throughout the day to bring your mind back to excellent thoughts.

A positive attitude is one of the hallmarks of a Magnetic Christian. As you reflect on just the few Scripture passages I have presented here, I think you’ll see that we can’t not be positive about life! (How about that – using a double negative to encourage a positive.)