My precious mom would say to her doctor \u201cDoc, some mornings I just don\u2019t want to get out of bed!\u201d He replied: \u201cThe day you decide to do that, expect to be bedridden very soon!\u201d In essence, he was saying: \u201cIf you don\u2019t use it \u2013 you\u2019ll lose it!\u201d
I\u2019m sure Mom\u2019s doctor\u2019s words were applicable to body AND mind. I think that was why she had only slight dementia when she graduated to heaven at 94. She daily read her Bible, prayed, and played word games and UNO with friends. She couldn\u2019t remember what she had for lunch, but she could quote scriptures, remembered people and experiences from recent and long ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPower-Up, Brain\u201d is part of my daily mode of operation. Besides heading to the fitness center for a body work-out, I keep my mind strong by daily devotions, praying, and writing blogs. Then, two days a week, I play Mahjong. I am doing my best to \u201cuse it\u201d so that I don\u2019t \u201close it\u201d. I want to do my part to keep my body and mind as strong as I can for as long as I can.
Mahjong is an excellent mental workout that helps keep our brains in good health and our minds sharp. I should clarify that this is the 4-player game and not the solitaire version that we see online or on our phone.
The game requires considerable mental finesse just to play it, let alone play it well. When I first learned the game, it was all I could do to keep track of all the rules and plan a strategy. That kept me so busy that I barely even noticed what my opponents were doing. If we can\u2019t keep track of what our opponents are doing, we are at a significant disadvantage. We could literally end up playing straight into their hands. In other words, I need to \u201cpower up\u201d my brain if I want to improve my game skills.
Did you catch the catch-phrase in the last paragraph? \u201cThat kept me so busy that I barely even noticed what my opponents were up to. If we can\u2019t keep track of what our opponents are doing, we are at a significant disadvantage. We could literally end up playing straight into their hands.\u201d That catch-phrase is also applicable to the enemy of our souls who plays mind games and life games with us. He uses tactics to weaken our minds — the lies, threats, temptations, and powering-down our lives. POWERING-UP our hearts, minds and spirits are God\u2019s mode of operation.
Powering Up\u201d our brain is powering up our attitudes for enjoying life, laughing often, developing an optimistic outlook, making sure our minds are freed of stress and anxiety AND the lies of the enemy. We should daily \u201cpower up\u201d our brains by keeping our minds on what God says in His Word — even memorizing scriptures that help guarantee sound and healthy minds and eliminating the lies and cheats of the enemy!
Here are examples of powering up our minds by speaking affirmations from God\u2019s Word:
~ I have the mind of Christ! (1 Corinthians 2:16)
~ My mind is renewed daily! (Romans 12:2)
~ His mind is in me! (Philippians 2:5)
~ My mind is in perfect peace because it stays on God. (Isaiah 26:3)
~ I love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, and MIND. (Matthew 22:37)
~ Daily, I think on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. (Philippians 4:8)
I\u2019m in for the long haul so rather than my mind being used \u201cmindlessly\u201d, I\u2019m \u201cpowering up\u201d to be sure I live up to the best version of me that I can be! How about you?
\u201cI refuse to give in to my fears. For God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a SOUND mind!\u201d (2 Timothy 1:7)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My precious mom would say to her doctor \u201cDoc, some mornings I just don\u2019t want to get out of bed!\u201d He replied: \u201cThe day you decide to do that, expect to be bedridden very soon!\u201d In essence, he was saying: \u201cIf you don\u2019t use it \u2013 you\u2019ll lose it!\u201d I\u2019m sure Mom\u2019s doctor\u2019s words were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15632,"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":[22917,22916,22918,22915],"tags":[1210,22910,1769,22904,9056,4435,3115,40,14799,5039,22906,22909,22919,22907,5040,5041,22908,2251,5042,22914,2702,9676,2966,22911,22913,5043,22905],"class_list":["post-15630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mah-jongg","category-mahjong","category-mental-fitness","category-powering-up-the-mind","tag-blog","tag-catch-phrase","tag-christian","tag-daily-devotions","tag-enjoy-life","tag-fitness-center","tag-good-health","tag-inspiration","tag-lies","tag-mah-jongg","tag-mahjong","tag-mental-finesse","tag-mental-fitness","tag-mental-workout","tag-mind-of-christ","tag-mind-renewed","tag-minds-sharp","tag-perfect-peace","tag-power-up-brain","tag-powering-down","tag-scriptures","tag-sound-mind","tag-strategy","tag-tactics","tag-temptations","tag-use-it","tag-writing-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15630","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=15630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15633,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15630\/revisions\/15633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}