Rarely do I strain for what to blog about each day, but when I am having a brain freeze, I step away from the computer and become intentional to \u201cseeking and finding\u201d. I don\u2019t think seeking and finding will be difficult living in this community. Like yesterday when I intentionally walked down to get my mail and to enjoy a continental breakfast. I knew I would meet some people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did. One gal, Joanne, was sitting at a table. I interrupted her scrolling through her phone. We introduced ourselves. I asked how she weathered last week when they were completely without electricity or water. She didn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cOh, it hasn\u2019t been that bad. They had a warm motor coach out front where we could warm up, charge our phones and even take a nap if we wanted to. And it was wonderful for bonding. The first afternoon, someone said \u201cHey, I just made a lasagna. Someone else said \u201cI just made jambalaya and red beans and rice\u201d, and another had made a chicken meal. We all brought what we had and shared it. And did you know that the grills on the patio are gas? Another time we took pots and boiled water and grilled hamburgers. It has been wonderful getting to meet each other. (I sort of wished I had been here with them.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I met another gal walking down the hall who wasn\u2019t quite as optimistic. She said \u201cIt has been awful. I still haven\u2019t been able to wash my hair.\u201d I understand how she must feel. Now, we have electricity and water, and, a special “Thanks, God!”, hot water was restored. But bless this gal’s heart \u2013 she needed to vent her frustrations and I was happy to listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the hot water came on yesterday, I boiled water so it would be warm for a sponge bath, but the cold water didn\u2019t stop Bryson from jumping in the cold shower. He was spending the night here and was hilarious as I heard him whooping and hollering in that cold water! I wasn\u2019t that brave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back to my two new friends. One of the greatest revelations of my life is doing my best to stay on the look-out for the positive and to eliminate the negative. I don\u2019t mean in people, but in me. I have plenty negative I could share daily, but I just won\u2019t. I\u2019m not going to live there. I can choose how to choose my thoughts and think things on purpose. It is life-changing when we choose to be optimistic. Proverbs 23:7 says, \u201cAs a man\/woman thinks in his\/her heart, so is he\/she.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been hearing messages about our thinking and how our thoughts are like battlefields. The enemy wants us to dwell on the negative side of life. And God, of course, wants us thinking possibilities and gratitude and hope. That\u2019s why we need to think about what we\u2019re thinking about. Otherwise, we won\u2019t live the life Jesus died to give us \u2013 a life of peace with God, peace with ourselves, great relationships, real joy and the ability to become all God has created us to be. It comes down to choosing to believe what God says (the truth) more than we believe our feelings, what other people say or our circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renewing our minds is an ongoing process. God\u2019s Word (the Bible) helps me with that. I want to think about what God thinks about. Our God is an \u201call things are possible\u201d God. \u201cOh, the plans I have for you\u201d, declares the Lord. \u201cPlans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.\u201d (Jeremiah 29:11) That means we need to daily firehose the junk in our mind out so we can keep running our race in Christ Jesus and have the victory God wants us to have. Then we are ready for action to follow those plans God has for our lives. When we commit to setting our minds with God\u2019s truths, our minds will be renewed and stinkin\u2019 thinkin\u2019 will move out of our way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rarely do I strain for what to blog about each day, but when I am having a brain freeze, I step away from the computer and become intentional to \u201cseeking and finding\u201d. I don\u2019t think seeking and finding will be difficult living in this community. Like yesterday when I intentionally walked down to get my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19945,17613],"tags":[1758,9502,19,19942,271,6112,7371,43,7670,1764,19943,19941,3721,6697,19944],"class_list":["post-13955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reset-mindset","category-seek-and-find","tag-as-a-man-thinks","tag-battlefield-of-the-mind","tag-bible","tag-eliminate-the-negative","tag-jeremiah-2911","tag-negative","tag-oh-the-plans-i-have-for-you","tag-optimistic","tag-positive","tag-proverbs-237","tag-renewing-our-minds","tag-reset-mindset","tag-revelations","tag-seek-and-find","tag-stinkin-thinkin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13957,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions\/13957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}