CLEANING OUT MY THOUGHT CLOSET
Today's Guest Author: Debbie Wilson
Breakout Session Leader for MAKING A DIFFERENCE Conference for Women and Girls,
February 28-March 1 (details below)
February 28-March 1 (details below)
“Don't become a victim of yourself.
Forget about the thief waiting in the alley;
what about the thief in your mind?”
-Jim Rohn
I went to deposit some checks I’d collected. When I couldn’t find them in my stack of work, I remembered my son, a teenager at the time, had tried to organize my pile the night before. I concluded he’d moved them. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. Who was he to move my stuff? He would have to call the people whose checks he’d lost.
Later that morning I found the checks—where I had left them.
I was so glad he had not come home in the middle of my fuming!
Do you see how my untrue thought, "Brant moved my checks!" drove my emotions and actions?
Thoughts are powerful, whether they’re true or not.
Even simple lies can be destructive and controlling. They affect our health and dispositions. They impact breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and every cell in our bodies.
Dr. Daniel Amen, author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, says negative thoughts create cravings for fattening, sugary, and salty foods and rob our sleep. In other words, unhealthy thoughts make you fat, wrinkled, and sick!
Strongholds are lies on steroids. Even when they are exposed, we defend them because at some level they feel true. They imprison us within fortresses of fear, insecurity, and self-protectiveness.
Dr. Neil Anderson says, “Strongholds are mental habit patterns of thought burned into our minds over time or from the intensity of trauma.” In other words, years of smaller injuries, like constant ridicule or neglect, shape our thought patterns and affect us as much as one major life event, like a rape, divorce, or death. A victim is still trapped under a thousand pounds whether the thousand pounds accumulated like falling sand over many years or fell in an instant like a boulder.
Beliefs shaped during our formative years generate many of our current battles. A false belief system distorts our perception much like wearing a wrong prescription of eyeglasses distorts physical vision. We misinterpret our experiences and overreact.
Renewing our minds corrects our vision and frees us from our past.
God provides powerful weapons to bulldoze these lies. In the "Changing Your Thought Closet" break out session of MAKING A DIFFERENCE, we’ll learn how to clean out our closets and update our wardrobes with freeing truth. I hope to see you there.
-Debbie Wilson
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About Debbie Wilson:
Drawing from over 35 years of experience in ministry as a Bible teacher, Biblical counselor, and more recently, a life coach, Debbie Wilson helps women discover God’s heart and experience Him in their daily lives. She and her husband Larry founded Lighthouse Ministries in 1991 and live in Raleigh, NC, with their two standard poodles. They have two grown children. Visit her blog at www.DeborahWWilson.com.
Lighthouse Ministries serves as a beacon of hope to the Triangle. They provide biblical help through counseling, coaching, small groups, and weekly articles. Their mission is to help people experience fresh faith in God, find practical tools for successful living, and see themselves and their circumstances from God’s perspective. Learn more at: www.LighthouseMinistriesNC.org.
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