“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious–the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to things to curse.” Philippians 4:8 (The message)
I’m sitting in my dining room, in my comfy chair that I moved in front of our fireplace. Watching the snow blowing outside, the last remnants of the first snowstorm of the season. I’m thinking of all the things my family needs to do to get ready to host my family for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow evening. We need to clean bathrooms. Sweep and vacuum. We need to get the driveway plowed and the sidewalk shoveled. I need to make sure all the snacks are ready to be served for the early arrivals who come to prepare the turkey and stuffing, and play Scrabble, and laugh. I’m making sure I have enough table cloths, enough potatoes, enough butter.
But in the meantime, I thought I would procrastinate by writing for a bit. So, here is what my procrastination looks like today.
A new blog post!
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this season. Winter. All of the holidays. All of the busy-ness that seems to be anticipated or dreaded depending on our outlook. All of the people. All of the food. All of the snow. All of the cold….So many things.
I am a pretty positive person. I don’t usually have trouble finding the good in most things. I don’t have much trouble choosing to think on the positive, on the good things. Growing up, my mom never allowed my sister and I to bring our crappy attitudes into the rest of our world. Her famous line to me was, “Attitude Adjustment.” (She even bought me a beach towel that said those exact words.) One Christmas, shortly after we were both married, my sister and I received a framed quote by Charles Swindoll, on the importance of attitude from our parents.
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You see, my mom, (And Chuck Swindoll), taught me that my attitude changes everything.
According to the dictionary attitude is defined as “a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.”
Our attitude comes from what your thoughts are settling on or feeling about a person, or a circumstance. Or anything, really.
And you will hear me say this on repeat, (or type on repeat?? Whatever.) the Bible teaches us that we can take our thoughts captive. We can catch them and we can change them. Second Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
We can re-train our thoughts. In scientific terms this is called neuroplasticity. Yep, that’s right, science confirms what the Bible says. We can change our brains. (Google it. I love it. Neuroplasticity was just discovered in the last 20 years, but confirms what the Bible has told us for forever!!)
I’m more and more convinced as I grow, that I am the one determining my attitude on everything. If I start dreading the winter, I remind myself of what a friend of mine determined to feel, “Cozy not Cold.” When I am nervous about time spent with people that may have gone sideways in the past, I remind myself that my thoughts about that person can change the conversation, so I determine to think good thoughts, and to talk about fun things. And definitely, at all costs, avoid politics!!
When I get overwhelmed by all the space that my introverted self can see filling up my calendar throughout the next month, I am determined to remind myself of the fact that these are all fun things. These are my favorite people. And, also, that I don’t have to say, “yes,” to everything. I just don’t. And neither do you!
As an adult, I have come to realize that even with all the yummy food, the sparkly lights, and the fun events, that this isn’t always an easy season. That for some people, it is a really hard season.
And so, My prayer for myself and for you, is that we choose the positive.
That we choose to see the good.
That we can tune out the words meant to hurt. The negative.
That we will choose to love well even when it’s hard. Choose to notice the joy. That we will laugh with our people as we scoop up our gravy soaked mashed potatoes at tables filled with people that we love. That our hearts will grin as we hear the bells jingle and we see the lights sparkle. That our hearts will warm as we add the beloved peppermint to everything chocolate.
Happy beginning of all that is holly and jolly and bright and hopeful!! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas season to you and yours!
Love,
Me
