Greetings, Friend!
Lately, I’ve written about trash, toilets, and grocery stores. I had a subject in mind last week, but my stream of thought became bifurcated (don’t you love that word?), and I took a lighter route. Now, imagine my glee when I was sitting in church this past Sunday, and my pastor started talking about the very thing I wanted to talk about in my email! Did God purposely prompt me to write about grocery stores last week and save this subject in the wake of my pastor’s sermon? Maybe!
Let me start by asking, did you ever have an imaginary friend? I did. His name was, get this, “Peterson Bud.” I’m not sure why I put a traditional last name first, but now that’s popular. I didn’t realize I was such a trendsetter! I don’t remember much about Peterson Bud, but he liked to play outside in the field across the road from my house. Lucky duck never got wood ticks on him, unlike me, who would get covered. (I always loved when one of the “city kids” had a wood tick on them in school, and they’d just about faint. They didn’t bother me one iota. They bothered Peterson Bud even less.)
Fast forward to my adult years. Peterson Bud is long gone, but I do find myself having entire conversations in my head with real people. Please, someone else, say you do this, too. I mean, I do a lot of “supposing” and “probably-ing.” These two things go hand in hand with “jumping to conclusions” and “assuming” (and we all know what that leads to—ahem). I will imagine someone’s reaction to something I’ve said or done, and I’ve got the whole scenario playing out in my head. I suppose they think one way and that they probably are rolling their eyes at me. I assume they think I’m a ding-dong and jump to the conclusion that they don’t like me. Do I sound like I need therapy?
I suppose I probably do!
According to the all-knowing google, about 80% of our thoughts during an average day are negative. I was surprised to hear this and thought, “Well, not me! I’m a veritable plethora of positive thoughts!” But upon further examination, and when you add up all those negative conversations I have with myself, yeah, I’m no doubt right in that negativity festival of thought life.
So, what to do about it?
No one wants to live their days in Grumble Land unless perhaps you’re Oscar the Grouch. I do a thing that has helped me, and I wanted to share it with you. Maybe it might help you, too. Or you might just think I’m weird. Uh!! There I go again; some habits are hard to break.
I’ve started imagining that negative thought I’m having, whatever it might be – – but I know it’s not “healthy” or just plain “wrong.” I can picture that thought sitting in my head, and I can imagine one of those cardboard boxes that is entirely flat but has all the parts to fold up and enclose an object scoots right under that negative thought. Then the box magically folds up around that thought, completely containing it. Then I “throw out” the boxed-up thought right out the window. I like to take it one step further and see that thought dumped into the ocean, where it sinks like a rock to the bottom. See ya! Wouldn’t wanna be ya!
Now, if I could just leave it there!
There is a Bible verse that says, “Once again You (God) will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under Your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean.” (Micah 7:19) Sometimes, a lot of times, those thoughts come back, as though I’ve jumped into the water and retrieved that box and brought it right back up to the surface.
I bet you’ve heard of the old snap-a-rubber-band-on-your-wrist trick for negative thoughts, right? Even though it sounds a bit masochistic, I thought I’d try it. I’ve been wearing a lovely purple rubber band on my wrist. I give myself a little snap (sometimes it’s a snap, crackle, pop) to snap those negative thoughts out of my mind. I have it on the same wrist as my watch since I look at it often during the day. Now, just glancing at that purple band reminds me to clean up my act.
Another verse encapsulates my somewhat meandering thoughts:
“We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:5
I’ve talked before about letting the devil whisper in my ear way too much. In fact, anything he says to me will be a lie, yet I still listen. Those are the thoughts I want to box up and toss out!
I need to ask for God’s help every day to do this because, left to my own devices, I’m jumping right back into the ocean to bring them back. And I want more space in my head for the good stuff! Stuff that God tells me, not that creep who wants to tell me lies.
How about you? Are you listening to any lies like me? Box ‘em up and toss ‘em out!
Written with love – – – Patti XOXO💗
(BTW – I’m sorry I didn’t get to write back to anyone last week. I love your notes back to me and want to respond to each one. Last week was a wee bit crazy. My apologies.)
