Let’s do lunch…

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:29 -32

I went to lunch with a dear friend, hoping for some good fellowship and fun. Unfortunately, she was having a bad day, and so the conversation was filled with her retelling painful stories of her past.

I’ve heard most of the stories before, on other bad days…

Yet, she has lived such a blessed life. She is beautiful, and talented & has a great job, nice car, & has traveled the world.

Yes, she has had some hard times in her life. Everyone has.

Everyone has had pain & heartache, disappointments & difficulties.

Everyone.

Many people have had lives much, much worse than hers.

Yet, everyone has also had some good in their life. Some blessing that we can retell. Some blessing that we can think about and be thankful for…

My friend just wasn’t seeing her blessings. Instead she was focused on all the negative, and then chooses to share those stories.

Her bitterness & anger grieved me. From reading today’s verse, I think it grieves the Holy Spirit even more.

We talk about what we focus on.  What we focus on controls our life.

We need to be thankful. We need to focus on our blessings. Blessings in our past,  in our life right now, and the bright future promised to us by God. (see Jer 29:11)

We need to retell the good story of our life – not the bad one. We need to prophesy the good things coming our way, not the bad.

Recounting the negative stories actually builds up the memory of those events in your life & reinforces the pain. Every time you share the negative stories of your life you build and reinforce strongholds in your mind that negatively control your actions and even make you ill. You are literally making yourself sick when you focus on the negative.

I challenge you, as I challenged myself & my friend, to retell your story focusing on the good, not the bad. Share the happy events in your life. Tell of all the blessings. Tell of the good times. Tell of the love & kindness & smiles & laughter. It is all there. You decide what you want to see and what you want to share. Tell of God’s faithfulness & love.

And write it down. Write down the good story of your life. And then, tell it to me, over a good lunch.

Let’s do lunch!

Diane’s Master Your Mind series of books can be found here: Master Your Mind Series