By Lisa S. Tarno

I’m reading Susie Larson’s “Fully Alive” book/study and in the life reflection part she writes, “What we rehearse we remember, and what we remember we live from. She goes on to ask “What core belief stands in the way of your flourishing?” There are so many directions this answer can take. It can be about our physical, mental, spiritual, emotional or relational health and wellbeing. As humans, I think it’s fair to say that all these are balls in the air that we tend to juggle throughout life. What ball dropped? That’s where to focus.

So understanding the power of what we are thinking about and how it directs our lives, there is so much yet-to-be-discovered-impact of how our brains are wired and rewired and the effect on our capacity to fail or flourish. There have been memes that read, “What you think about you bring about…” and even in scripture it reads in Proverbs 23:7,  “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” and one such teacher coins as “Where the mind goes, the man follows.” We all can conclude that the mind is powerful, and therefore our thoughts, good or bad, are impactful.

She writes, “In order for us to flourish, we need to take the necessary time to examine our most repetitive thoughts and see where they’ve been leading us…We need to better guard our hearts from the toxic influences of the day.” This is all good stuff where I want to land in this reflection. I have taught my own kids a kind of deduction theory. It’s basically connecting a line from the emotion to what they have been thinking about and analyzing the quality of those thoughts and what they are producing.

Are these thoughts true or false; positive or negative? (As we align with scripture) Do they produce peace or chaos? From these answers we can deduce the author of these thoughts. If they are false, anxiety producing, negative and chaotic they are not from God and if they are from God, they will be true and peaceful and positive. Make a choice. Who are you going to listen to? 

This is why it is instructed in 2 Cor. 10:5 that we are to take ALL our thoughts captive and align with what God’s word says (the Bible). We are also instructed, in order to flourish in our lives to think the Phil 4:8 way on what is good, true, excellent, positive and praiseworthy. This isn’t just some Christian mumbo jumbo. This is life giving advice so that we CAN flourish all throughout our lives.

We actually can renew our minds with the word of God. It’s true….we can rehearse good and life giving words and thoughts and then in turn live from them rather than from the negative that is perpetually spewed in our world today. We make a choice everyday what we are going to listen to, read or watch. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”