Live Fear-less and Grate-ful
Flipping back through my journal, an entry from a few months ago jumped out at me. I needed the reminder, so here it is in a blog post for my own reference. It was one of those “ah-ha” moments for me, so I figured you could benefit, too.
We spend too much time thinking about and talking about LACK. For most of us, the majority of our thoughts are centered on all we have to do, how hard life is, how busy we are, and how overwhelmed we feel.
We seldom focus on how great God is, how He has equipped us, and how He pours out favor and increase and multiplication on us. We don’t often spend our day considering how grateful we are for our family or how wonderful it is that we woke up in the morning.
What a waste of life! To spend so many hours, so many days of life discouraged, stressed and overwhelmed. It seems so foolish when you look at it that way.
It’s like our thoughts are spring-loaded to negativity and self-focus. We have to consciously choose to flip the switch over to a life of gratefulness.
My “one word” last year was “fearless.” It didn’t exactly mean being bold, it meant fear-less. Less fear, less living in anxiety and stress. Because fear is at the heart of discouragement and overwhelm. We fear that there won’t be enough for us or enough of us to go around and have something left over…for us.
Much of this thinking is a habit. And often we just don’t know any better. We learned the pattern from childhood and assumed there was nothing we could do. As a young Mom I honestly thought I had to just go with whatever thoughts popped into my head. I didn’t realize that taking thoughts captive was a literal task, not just poetry.
I know that a blog post isn’t going to shift your world. But maybe it will give you a jump start on grateful thoughts today. Live fear-less and grate-ful.
Where’s your focus today? What are you grateful for?
Thanks, Charlotte. I especially like the phrase, “As a young mom I honestly thought that I had to go with whatever thoughts popped into my head. I didn’t realize that taking thoughts captive was a literal task, not just poetry.” True, true. Bless you!
Just what I was thinking about this morning. Thanks for your contribution to my thoughts. 🙂
I have also been trying to focus this past year (and continue to) to living in the fear of God, and
not the fear of man, and of circumstances, or living in a state of worry of what if this or that, etc.
it is so easy to let negative thoughts run away to wild and crazy places to where a once peaceful day
can turn into an imaginary wreck. I use Psalms and prayer to fend off the negativity bug. I can start
out my morning with the Word and praying, feeling filled up and ready for the day, but a negative
phone call, text, etc can get me off track and back into worry. Sooo at that point I go back to God, praying
and/or reading His Word.
I have also been trying to live with a more thankful heart, even for the smallest things the past few years.
And just this week I made a “thankful for’ box. Everyday, we each put a slip of paper with at least one thing that we are thankful for, and plan to read them every Friday evening after supper.
Thank you so much for your blog, all the info and wonderful encouragement!! 🙂
Stephanie