DO NOT PARK!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if before every mistake we made, a flashing yellow light would pop up in our mind's eye screaming to us, "don't go there!" Making mistakes is a normal part of our everyday lives. But if you're dwelling on your mistakes and they are bringing you discouragement and defeat, there are things that you can do to make it better. However, you have to make the effort.

There are some places that we should never allow ourselves to stay if we stop by and make a visit on the road of regret. Those are the places that will distract us, disturb us, defeat and destroy us if we let them. Anger, discouragement, worry, doubt, guilt and fear just to name a few. God's word tells us the right things that we are to think about and dwell on and instead of pulling up and parking our minds on the wrong things we need to quickly choose to think on those things that will help us move on.  Sometimes, the mistakes we make are more serious than others, and more complicated. It may also take us longer to learn from them and to change our ways. The most important thing in these instances is to learn how to accept what’s happened and move forward, rather than dwell on the past. When you make a mistake, keep in mind that it doesn’t mean anything about who you are as a person if you are working on making it right.

Try not to jump to conclusions about your worth or value. Your reputation belongs to the Lord.  No one’s perfect, and that’s okay. When you mess up and you will, don’t hide the fact and don’t try to sugar-coat it, own it and face it. Even though it’s often a really difficult thing to do, it’s important that you accept full responsibility for your actions. If others are involved, you are only responsible for the part you play. The sooner you deal with it, the sooner you can get yourself back on track. If you’re making excuses for yourself, you’ll simply just prolong the process. Philippians 4:5-9 says, "The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ... And the God of peace will be with you. I love how Paul speaks to his friends, he says, "Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown", "that is how you should stand firm in the Lord…!" God's word tells us how we should think and what perspective to think in.

I love the story about the small blind boy who every day sat on and old wood crate in the city park. Beside his feet was an old bucket that had a sign taped to it that read, “I am blind, please help.” One day a kind man came walking by and noticed the boy. As he looked inside the boys bucket, he noticed only a few dimes and pennies. The man reached in his pockets and pulled out all the money that he had and placed it inside the boys bucket. He then took the sign, turned it around and wrote some other words on the back of the sign and placed it back on the bucket so that everyone who walked by would take more notice. Before long, the bucket was overflowing with money.  For the first time, more people had taken notice of the boy than ever before. That afternoon the man who had changed the words on the sign came to see how things had gone. The boy recognizing the footsteps from earlier that morning  asked, “Are you the one who changed my sign this morning and if so would you tell me what you wrote?” The man said, “Yes son, it was me and I did change your words, but I only said what you said, just in a different way.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.”

You see friend, that man did for that little boy that which the little boy knew not to do for himself. While both signs told people that the little boy was blind, the boy’s sign simply said that he was blind. The man’s sign  reminded  people to be thankful that they were not blind. God is trying to help us, if we will allow Him to re-write the scripts that we play out in our stinking thinking. So, on those days that you are tempted to dwell on stinking thinking, be sure not to park there, but move on! The Higher Road is by no means easy, but it is the right way!

Hold Fast,
-Bren