I have to say that it can be very difficult at times. Everything I do now is done intentionally. I just don't "do" things any longer. I stop and think about them. Yup, them...that would be everything. Everything I do is intentional.
What kinds of things? Well...
Let's take music choices. You're probably thinking there isn't anything wrong with music. It is awesome. But is all of it awesome? Have you ever stopped to think about the words you hear in mainstream music? I mean, stop and think about it. Most popular music is full of sex, scandal, drinking, partying, drugs, lust, anger, and all kinds of other innuendos and insinuations... So I listen to christian stations now. I love them and I love the music. It's uplifting, it's calming and it helps put me in the right frame of mind especially when I'm I'm driving. Instead of being the crazy lady behind the wheel, I'm now the one watching all the other crazy drivers thinking to myself, "That used to be me." Any way, I digress... I guess what I'm saying is that what you listen to is what you're filling your head with.
And then there is TV and movies. Nowadays it seems like the majority of the shows are filled with scandal, lust, sex, nudity, drinking, cheating, lieing, stealing, killing, deception, foul language...the list could go on and on. I choose not to watch the majority of what's on TV for that reason. In fact, I was watching some old seasons of the original CSI Tuesday evening and I stopped. Strip clubs and murder...I couldn't do it any longer. I literally stopped the stream and turned something else on. I know it sounds strange. CSI. Everyone watches that. Well, not me. Any longer that is. Again, it's what we fill our heads with.
Ah and movies...this is the doozy. I can't tell you how many movies I've stopped watching or DVDs I've returned after viewing the first 10 or 15 minutes. Again...it's all about what goes into the noggin'!
Swearing. Oh yes. This was a big one for me. I did not realize how much I used to swear. For many it seems so normal and natural to swear.....I mean everyone does it even kids. It's probably the cultural norm now. I used to call myself "Sue the Sailor Mouth". Pretty sad and disgusting when I think about it now. About a year ago, I actually wore a ponytail holder on my wrist and would snap it when I swore or thought about swearing. I actually had welts! Okay, well not really, but you get the idea. Do I swear now...yes, sometimes it slips. But I immediately realize what happened and do my best to continue not to do it again. It's that head thing again...what's in the head...
Reactions. This is a good one, too. We all have a choice to react to things that happen in our daily lives. We can choose to let them upset us. We can choose to let something that happened ruin our entire day. Or we can choose to accept what happened and turn the other way. Someone can wrong us...we can choose to forgive them or we can choose to be angry or hurt or upset and let them have power over us. Standing in line at the store waiting our turn. We can choose to get annoyed if it's taking to long or we can wait our turn patiently.
Yes, we make choices. You make them. I make them. Everyday. All day long.
Have you ever heard of this verse? Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
You see what is in our heads ultimately transfers to our hearts. And what is in our hearts comes out of us through our words and our actions. If we fill our heads with garbage long enough, eventually garbage will come out. If we fill our heads with good, then good will come out. Seems simple enough.
So what does all of this have to do with being a Christian? In the Bible, we are given three great commands...love God (Matthew 22:37-38), love one another (Matthew 22:39) and spread the good news (Matthew 28:19-20).
Loving God and others...I can't do that if I've got garbage coming in and going out. And if I want only good to come out, I have to be intentional, very intentional, about what goes in and what comes out of my mind and my heart.
Loving. Doing things with love. Doing things out of love. When you stop and think about it...that covers A LOT of ground...it's really everything we do. If we are not doing things in love...then we are going against God's commands. And if we want to be true Christians, we must follow God's commands, right?
Living my life in love as a Christian has not come easy. It's really hard. So very hard sometimes. The cultural norm is not to live in love, but to live for ones self. To do things because it feels good. To do things to go along with the crowd because if it's okay for them, it's okay for me, too.
When we live in love, it's not about us...it's about others. How we treat others. How we talk to others. How we handle ourselves. What we decide to do in all situations. It's about forgiving others when they wrong us. It's about apologizing to someone when we wrong them. It's about doing the right thing even when it seems impossible and goes against the grain.
It's about being intentional.
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