These past couple days I went on a bit of a book binge. I don’t know if it was a result of sorting through all my books last week and being inspired to read, or what, but regardless, I’ve really enjoyed reading more. This week’s picks included: Think and Grow Rich, Out of Solitude, and ReThink Your Life.
Although each is significantly different, there was a common thread throughout: the importance of our thoughts and how we care for our selves by taking care of our mind. This commonality was not intentional at all! Two of the books were unearthed during my unpacking last week (see previous post); one of which I have read many times and the other I hadn’t gotten around to reading yet and was curious based on my present circumstances. The third one was a new purchase this week for 49 cents (on my kindle, so I don’t add to my already-too-large stash of books #winning).
Think and Grow Rich is all about the positive thoughts that we have about our dreams and our future and our ability to achieve those dreams. Out of Solitude focuses on the importance of taking time daily to pray and focus your thoughts on the Lord while quieting them to the noise of the world. ReThink Your Life begins the first third of the book by decluttering our mind from all the noise—negative thoughts, social media, and so forth, and then it goes into changing our thought life–realignment, reinforcement and perseverance. The health of the mind, it seems, plays a significant role in the overall health of the body.
All this reading about my mind has caused me to think a lot (imagine that!). What I’ve realized about all this thinking, is that so often when we are going through trials, we have a tendency to think a lot about and focus on the hard things. I’ve realized just how much of my thought life has been consumed by replaying conversations over and over and over, and thinking about what I wish I could have said in response. Or I’m thinking about what I will say in the next conversation. I would find myself thinking about the situation and the people and just how frustrating it all was. I truly had started to feel helpless and hopeless. How distracting and depressing that is! As difficult as it is (sometimes) to let go of how people have hurt you, it really is a waste of time to think and rethink about it (inefficient, right?:)).
A number of weeks ago, in the midst of crisis, I hit a defining moment when I decided to change. It absolutely had to happen—for me, and for my family. I certainly haven’t arrived at perfecting my thought life yet, but I am trying to be aware of times when I slip into negative thoughts. Instead, I have tried to focus on dreams and possibilities—in short, hope.
Charles Spurgeon said, “Hope itself is like a star—not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.”
Adversity never feels good. But it is here that I have spotted that star—deep in the midst of darkness—and it’s on that star that I will fix my eyes and my mind as I walk this path until I see the sun again.