I find it easy to have myself together and think good thoughts when everything is going well. Then, it’s easy to be kind to others and be kind to myself. But when the pressure of life starts coming (and I promise you, at some point it will), what happens? I can easily become more anxious, short-tempered, and critical. When you apply pressure to something, you see what’s on the inside. If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice. If you squeeze grapes, you get wine. So I ask myself, what is my life producing? Is it wine or a whine?

I know that if I let my mind rule, it won’t end well. Emotions are unreliable and often flawed although they can seem very real. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death”. You don’t have to accept everything you feel, because not everything you feel is right or authentic or will lead you in the right direction. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it says, “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”. That actually means that we don’t have to be subject to our emotions and thoughts but our emotions and thoughts can be subject to us.

God speaks in the language we know best; not our ears but our circumstances. In fact, God is far more interested in changing our minds than changing our circumstances. And God challenges us and trains us like a loving father. In Hebrews 12:6-7 is says, “For the Lord’s training of your life is the evidence of his faithful love. And when he draws you to himself, it proves you are his delightful child. Fully embrace God’s correction as part of your training, for he is doing what any loving father does for his children. For who has ever heard of a child who never had to be corrected?”.

Sometimes I wish God would just fix the situation; take away certain thoughts or emotions, increasing my patience right there and then. But God doesn’t just fix it. He works with us. And as frustrating as that sometimes can be, it is the most beautiful thing. That the God who created the universe wants to be in an intimate relationship with us and change us from the inside out.

We should ask God to help us make the choices every day to feed on his word, free our minds of destructive thoughts, and fill our minds with Jesus, other people, and eternity.

In Galatians 5:25 it says, “We have chosen a life, the life of the spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every details of our lives.”

Working it out into our lives is up to us. It is a process but it is possible.

Love Soph xx