Words of Faith: Stop that ‘stinkin’ thinkin’’

I am in the process of preparing to sell my house. I never realized that it would involve having to get rid of so many things – clutter that had been accumulated for many years.

It has actually been refreshing to let go of so much that had piled up both in and under my house. I actually found two lawn mowers that didn’t work, two bicycles, three Christmas trees and the list goes on.

Don’t judge me until you get ready to move again. : )

It made me wonder why we live so long with things weighing us down and we don’t even realize it. Actually, I find we do the same thing with mental and emotional clutter. author and keynote speaker Jon Gordon says, “We fill our minds with thoughts that hold us back, habits that limit us, distractions that derail us, negative people who drain us, fear that paralyzes us, time-zappers that sabotage our productivity.

“We spend so much time and energy on things that don’t matter, we fail to focus on what does matter. We fill up with so many things that generate negative energy, there’s no room for positive energy in our lives.”

The apostle Paul writes, “Throw off your …former way of life … let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes” (Ephesians 4:22,23). The enemy of our soul loves to play havoc with our minds and attitudes.

The clutter you need to lose includes thoughts like believing that you’re all alone, trying to please everybody, feeling insecure, putting yourself down, needing everybody to like you, jumping to negative conclusions before you know the facts, thinking you’re always right, recalling all the times you messed up, wanting to know how it all turns out, needing to have all the answers, worrying that if you let go of the memorabilia you’ll lose the memories, agonizing that you’re not rich enough, good enough or smart enough, surrounding yourself with people who remember the bad times and not the good, making energy-sucking comparisons, viewing life like a movie instead of participating, believing that your best days are over, waiting at all times for the right moment, fearing you will look foolish, focusing on negative type-casting...and anything else you don’t want to pass on to your children. WOW! Did you find yourself in there somewhere? My mother used to call that “stinkin’ thinkin’.”

So how do we get rid of all that clutter?

“Let the Spirit renew your … attitudes.”

More great advice from Paul is found in Philippians 4:8,9: “Finally brothers, 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.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Words of Faith: Stop that ‘stinkin’ thinkin’’."