Guarding Our Minds
Our minds are like a computer in that what we put into it, is what comes out. And all that data is stored up from the beginning of our lives. Case in point. We are still caring for dear mom who at 99 years and 15 days is getting closer to heaven each day. In the meantime, in her mind, she has returned to her childhood.
Mom doesn’t recognize us or our names, but she recalls her 10 siblings, especially Mary (all already in heaven). She also calls out for her mama. Perhaps those memories represent security and joy-filled times.
There is so much data that we hold in these minds of ours. Fast forward to this information age when we continue to amass a wealth of info in our minds, our data banks.
With our computers, daily, we input all kinds of data. We compile graphics and use it for corresponding for business and with family and friends. In my case, it is where I go daily to fulfill my mission of blogging. Now, it holds over 3,000 blogs that include many photos and images. Inevitably, my computer’s memory gets overloaded resulting in a slower performance.
A friend of mine said, after she couldn’t remember the name of someone, “I hate growing old!” While “maturing” may be attributed to memory loss, I would like to suggest that our memory bank gets overloaded — just like our computers.
Think of all our minds have consumed over the course of our lives. No wonder we have trouble finding where we left our keys or remembering that person’s name.
Our minds are beautiful gifts from God. I understand that our minds have the potential of storing 100 trillion thoughts. And it is a tool that God wants to use in fulfilling His purposes for our lives.
That’s why we must be choosy. We must control what we allow into our minds. What’s true of computers is true with humans — garbage in, garbage out.
Proverbs 4:23 says “More than anything, guard and protect your mind, for life flows from it.”
One of my greatest “aha” moments came when I realized that I could choose my thoughts and think things on purpose. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Maybe your mind has been bombarded with such bad news, that you become sick to your stomach. I’ve been there. I had choices to make. Allow those negative, fearful, and crippling thoughts to shut me down, or REBOOT. Like the most high-tech, leading-edge computer that needs to be rebooted when there is a conflict inside, so do we.
That same computer can be infected with a virus, and our computer needs to be scanned and cleaned out. So do we. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and remove the doubt, fear, and unbelief. I believe that is why God gave us the charge to rest on the 7th day (the Sabbath) and take in the presence of God. That’s when we charge up at the battery station. Maybe that’s our church, our parish, our place of plugging into the Central Charger.
We put up fences around our homes to keep the pets and children in and the varmints out. Literally we need to put fences around our minds that keeps the good and beautiful thoughts in and the junk, negativity, and fear out.
We control the doorways and the gates to our homes in who we let in. We need to do the same thing with our minds. We can dwell on the negative, think about it, mull it over, and complain about it OR we can do what any great computer provides for us — WE CAN DELETE IT!