Turn Turn Turn

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT). Perhaps you remember the snappy pop tune with lyrics from the third chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes?

To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. This is my time to break through the barriers – wrong thinking, bad habits, ‘old man’ existing instead of ‘new creation’ flourishing.

Last week in group, we talked about habits. Bad ones, good ones. The goal was to choose one bad habit that we would commit to work on. Our coach probed gently but deeply as each of us in turn shared our struggles and plans to surpass them.

I had a hard time choosing ONLY three bad habits but of those, I chose to focus on my thinking, more specifically, ‘negative self talk’. If I could gain victory in that area – my thinking – it would help me to replace my other bad habits with good ones.

My 34 negatives

Andrea shared her struggle with negative beliefs that had become automatic even though they were wrong. She wrote out each negative statement she said to and believed about herself. Then, she rewrote the negatives into positives. These were not feel good sayings; these were truths based on God’s word, what He says about us.

I thought this was a great idea so I decided to do the same thing. Unlike the previous week’s exercise – thinking of, writing down and then having someone speak over us our positive qualities – this one was easy.

As I sat and wrote the negative things I believe and/or say to/about myself, I wrote 34 sentences. A few were multi-segmented, and there was some overlap. My intention is to read them and distill them into a few key statements – then prayerfully seek the positive words to replace them.

Something’s bugging me

I’ve been laid low with a cold for 10 days now; it hit pretty hard last week. I’m on the mend and should be able to enjoy Thanksgiving and a glorious three day weekend!

My spiritual reconstruction stalled a bit – I didn’t go as deeply into these issues as I’d like. I will carry on, rewrite my negatives into positives, and work through my fears (it’s shorter list, only 12 items).

Tonight we’ll be talking about things that inspire us, successes and hopes/dreams. Should be fun. I’ll share more next week.

Stay healthy, dear reading friends, if you can. If you get hit, then drink lots of water, take plenty of Vitamin C and for goodness sakes, don’t be a hero, just get some rest!