MIND

I don’t know about your mind, but MY mind… is crazy (a little crazy? yes). I don’t think that anyone can ever understand what goes on in my mind, but I think it is silly for us to think we can understand something that God made. He is more complex than anything that we can understand. What God does want us to understand, is the importance, and power of our minds. Think about how powerful our minds are! When you burn your finger, it sends a message to your mind saying “ouch that hurt” which makes you remove your hand, now without that message, you wouldn’t feel the burn, which would allow you to burn that little finger of yours right off ;) now that would HAVE to hurt. Our minds control EVERYTHING that we do, everything we think, everything we sing, talk, mumble (in my case), everything we understand. thats all in your noggin. Our imaginations, are simply amazing. Think about it, everything around you, everything you see, it started from someone’s imagination. My chair, My shoe, This laptop, someone had a idea, which turned into this product. - Get the point? Out minds are important! VITAL! so it is vital that we protect something so important.  

Did you know that no matter what time of the day it is, you mind is full. But it is up to you what fills your mind and what doesn’t… 

This is what my understand had been throughout my whole life (until now that is).. If it is in my head, it is true. If my head thought “Hannah you look pretty today” It was true, and I acted like I thought it was true. If the thought in my head said “Hannah, you look like a fat cow” I thought it was true, and I acted like it was true. Makes sense right? That you believe what is in your head. (see im not crazy!) hahah This was the bad part though, My mind had tricked me! When someone would come up to me and say “Hannah, you are beautiful” I thought they were making fun of me.. (I know how crazy that sounds now..) Because in my head I though “Hannah you are ugly” and it was true! Because it was in my head! and my head wouldn’t lie to me.. right?  WRONG. It sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Trust me, It looked even crazier, when someone would give me a compliment I would back out of it and tell them to be quite. Can you imagine? “Hannah your pretty” “SHUTUP!” hahah that’s how it went. My mind was giving me lie after lie after lie! 

John 10:10 says “The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy” 

and that’s exactly what he was trying to do. Kill my happiness, steal my joy and destroy my self esteem. 

Your sweet mind. It is just a container. But a fragile container, don’t forget. So our first duty with our brain is to protect it. Things are going to fill it. That’s just the nature of your mind. It is up to you to decide what get’s to fill that container. 

And how do you do that? Protect the portals to your container, your eyes and ears. However, even when you protect them the enemy will STILL whisper lies to you, trying to convince you to sin or doubt or question God and His love. It is human nature, and especially being the kind of human that loves God. It reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite books “Same Kind of Different as Me” 

When you become important to God, you become important to satan. 

So are we helpless?! Not at all! We can win the battle in our minds and learn to glorify God with it. 

How? cheering :) Thanks to Annie Downs and her cheer to fight the fight until we see His face. 

M-I-N-D 

M-mute the lies

I- Identify the truth

N-notice the patterns 

D- decide what you think

MUTE THE LIES!

This is the first step. Literally, just stop listening to them. How do you know what the lie is? Know the truth. Study the scripture and know what is true. Only then you can call a lie a lie and choose not to believe it. Choose. You have to choose to do it. However, it is not going to end just because you decide you don’t want to hear it. In fact, It might get worse. Lies constantly pop into my head, I have to keep constantly muting them. Like right now? As I am sitting here talking to you lovely ladies and skipping my workout the lie “Hannah your never going to be pretty if you don’t loose weight” is popping in my head, and what do I have to do? MUTE IT! thought- you are not the truth! My mind is choosing to be obedient to Christ and His truths. He says I am fearfully wonderfully  made. 

IDENTIFY THE TRUTH!

Now even having those truths like Psalms 139:14: I am fearfully and wonderfully made, or verses like song of solomon 4:7: all beautiful you are.. there is no flaw in you.. The struggle is, actually believing those truths. You must invite that truth in. Allow it to come in. Which means? You have to make room for it, so it can stay with you forever. Like we said, your mind is a container, and it can only hold so much, so to make room… remove the lies, and replace them with truth. His truth. 

NOTICE THE PATTERNS!

Once you know the lies and stop the lies… try and realize when the lies are more than likely going to pop up. You know how it goes, when you finally get over something, and then one day you sit down and find yourself struggling with the same thing, and you find yourself wondering “wait a minute! how did this happen again? didn’t i get over this already?” For me, I know the time around valentines always hits me hard, and the lies start popping into my head like crazy. “Hannah your not good enough, Hannah your not pretty enough” But preparing myself I can more easily mute the lies with God’s truth. Does that mean you will never fail? Nope. But it will most definitely make things easier for you :) and everything likes easy right?

DECIDE WHAT YOU THINK!

Somethings need to stay in your mind forever. You need to decide what you think and stick to it. I know one thing that has stuck with me for a long time is a scripture from proverbs 25 “patience can persuade a prince” (which i want to get a tattoo of when i turn 18-cross your fingers the parents are still debating it) It has saved me from a lot of heartache. It seems to pop up when I am with a guy or thinking about dating guy. We all need verses like that. That we base our life around. 

With all of that said, remember some things in your head are straight from the King above! if God has put sparks of an idea in your head, it is up to you to follow through. your mind is beautiful, and yours alone! You can change the world with it! You can create amazing art with it! You can solve the problem of cancer with it! Use your mind as an instrument of righteousness, identify the lies, believe the truth, and change the world with the ideas in your mind that can become reality! 

CHALLENGE: I did this, and I think it is so incredibly stinking cool! In the book that I had mentioned, It asked to get notecards, and on one side, write lies that are stuck in your head, and then throughout the week pray and seek in the bible for the truth that contracts that lie. It’s easy. At the end of it all, I had 15 lies! (I got a little carried away) They can be anything, like “I am ugly” “I wont be good enough” “I have to have sex for him to know I love him” Pray about it. Pray that you will be able to Identify the lies. Then find the beautiful truth He has given us. You can even get help from someone you look up to, to help you find your truths. Its fun! Just try it :) You can literally see what the devil is trying to put in your head and the truth that God says about you… Good luck and have fun! 

I think about you ladies constantly! I pray for you all the time! We are woman with precious hearts and minds given from out King. Remember you deserve to be cherished and loved as God loves us. 

Until next time…

xoxox Hannah