"Fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy.'"
Philippians 4: 8
I'm curious. What do you see in the picture? Is it a handful of weeds?... or is it a sweet bouquet of handpicked spring flowers?
I picked these cute pink/purple pops of color, as I've always loved them and they remind of when I was a kid. It wasn't until getting married, becoming a homeowner and needing to take care of a yard that I learned this sweet pop of springtime was a weed, and having them grow in our yard isn't ideal.
Truth be told, I picked the sweet pop of springtime from our yard. They just sprouted this week and now all the ditches and fields are covered in them. As I thought about them being a weed (a plant that isn't valued), it reminded me of the importance of our mindset and our ability to retrain our brain and create new mental pathways for our unhealthy, unproductive and untrue thoughts and stories (weeds). This is the practice of reframing.
As once quoted from Pastor Craig Groeschel of Life Church, he says, "Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thought(s)" (positive or negative) and "What comes in your mind comes out of your life." My unsophisticated blunt version is: garbage in = garbage out. Fill your heart and mind with negativity, pessimism, untruth, and darkness, your attitude and life will go in that direction.
As to how to rewire our negative, unproductive and destructive pathways, we have to catch them when they occur, pause, and choose a different response in the direction we want to go, which when continued creates a new positive pathway. (Fill your heart and mind with optimism, truth, beauty and love and your attitude will go in that direction.)
We all tell ourselves stories, and our stories move us one direction or the other. Currently, I'm working through an insecure story that plays on a loop and in my head. However, per the wisdom of my coach and iGnite Member Martha Lynn Mangum, now that I'm aware that it's just an old story (not the truth), when I hear it I simply acknowledge it, and then reframe it with the truth..the correct and beautiful story. As Martha Lynn wisely recommends, "If you're gonna make up a story, make it a good one!", so mine will be one of empowerment, passion, truth and love.
Per the picture above, it is indeed a bouquet of springtime flowers that just so happens to also be weeds. This is the magic reframing and the gift of spring--where transformation is abundant, possibilities are endless and a handful of weeds is actually a bouquet of fresh cut spring flowers.
Love,
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