Our Beautiful Minds
As I type this blog today, it occurred to me that I am very, very grateful for my computer. And, I might add — grateful that it is working well, AFTER having a technician help me with the problem of my computer restarting in the middle of the night which resulted in a loss of important data. Ugh!
Our minds are like a computer. What we put in, is what comes out. On a daily basis we input data, type emails, letters, and use our graphics software to help us make impressive powerpoints and presentations on our computers.
We download photos and images. In my case, lots of photos and images. The memory in our computer continues to take in more and more, but eventually, the memory gets filled to capacity, resulting in a slowing down of its 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 about our minds that have consumed all the years of our lifetime. No wonder we have trouble finding where we left our keys or remembering that person’s name.
Our minds are special gifts from God. Our minds can potentially store 100 trillion thoughts. Now that’s what I call an “expanded” memory bank. And it is a tool that God wants to use in fulfilling His purposes for our lives.
That’s why we must be choosey. We must control what, or who 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 can 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 bad news, something that was such bad news that you became sick to your stomach. I’ve been there. I had choices to make. I could 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.
Like I called a computer technician for support, we should always call on the Holy Spirit to come in and remove the doubt, fear and unbelief. I think that’s why God urges us to take one day a week to “recharge”, rest, and go for a 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 keep the good, beautiful and pleasant thoughts in and keeps the junk, negativity, fear, and evil reports out.
We control the doorway to who we allow in our homes. We need to be diligent in controlling the doorway to our minds. We can dwell on the negative, mull it over, and complain about it OR, like what we do on our computer — WE CAN DELETE IT.
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3