A while back I was reading Soul Detox by Craig Groeschel and I came across this analogy of his and wanted to share it with you. It’s all about capturing our thoughts and shifting our mindset.
“Think about the difference between two birds: a vulture and a hummingbird. Vultures soar high in the sky, looking and searching. What does a vulture find? Dead things. The ugly oversized bird doesn’t stop until he finds lifeless, rotting road kill. Contrast the vulture to the tiny hummingbird. With wings flapping twenty beats a second, what does this small bird find? Not dead things and disgusting rancid meat, but instead, sweet, life-giving nectar. Daily, each bird finds what he is looking for.
The same is true for you. You can be on a road-kill diet or you can find nectar in each day. It’s up to you, because you will find what you search for. If you want to find things to be negative about or to worry about, it is not hard to do. If you plan to be critical, you don’t have to look far to find fault. If you choose to be negative, you’ll easily accomplish your goal. But if you want to see the good in life, you can find it everywhere. If you choose to watch for places God is working, you’ll see his loving presence each place you look. If you decide to look for hope, faith, and a better future, you will discover these positive things and more countless times a day.
Decide the destination of your mind. Any time your mind drifts toward dangerous thoughts, stop. Grab those runaway thoughts. Do whatever it takes to get the trash out of your mind. An Old Testament prophet said to God, “You see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter!” (Jer. 12:3) Can you hear the passion for truth in Jeremiah’s words? He asked God to test his thoughts, identify any that were “black sheep,” drag them off, and butcher them.
Are you willing to ask God to do the same with your thought life?”
I love this challenge. What is the destination of my mind? Will I let Christ take hold? Can I shift my mindset to a Godly focus? Can I find the nectar in each situation?
To an applicable point, my sister often references food that is trash out of the body is trash in the body… meaning, nourish your body with healthy foods. Our thoughts are much the same. What your ears hear whether in music, conversation, books, shows, etc affects our thoughts. Feed your brain with healthy thoughts.
Find the nectar and taste it.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” – Philippians 4:8
