Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by David Stoop from his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Locations 1267-1268). Kindle Edition. That is a good way to put that.   It is a wasted use of our emotions.   It’s useless but we all do it. What is your biggest worry today, right now?   If it is something that you can do right now then it’s not a worry, it’s a choice. I choose to take care of it or not.   The doing or not doing then will bring about a good or bad resolution of the problem.   Now let’s say you are worried about getting your electricity turned off at home.   You got a bill that said if you pay such and such on a such and such day then you will have electricity.   If you don’t then it will be turned off.   No amount of worry will keep that electricity turned on.   You either pay it or not.   You say but I am worried about not having enough money.   Well worry still doesn’t do any good.   Making arraignments, borrowing money,...

A thought by David Stoop from his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Locations 344-345). Kindle Editio n. Now I am not normally a complainer.   I look at my life and see it as a positive situation.   I love my life so why would I complain.   But I am right now on my other blog, bill’s front porch , writing about complaining and I have been having a difficult time keeping from complaining.   My thoughts have been about things that I deserved to complain about.   In other words I have been focusing on me. Whenever as a preacher I was preparing a sermon on a certain subject then I would have trouble on that particular subject.   Margaret would always sense it and would understand what was happening after she heard me preach the sermon.    You see our thoughts, our focus create our emotions. Now the key is we can change our emotions by changing our thoughts, our focus.   The key for me this week on the subject of complaining is t...

A thought by David Stoop from his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Location 217). Kindle Edition. An example would be, the reason why I am lonely is because I have no friends.   The truth is many people are lonely with many friends and some aren’t lonely who have no friends.   The having or not having friends doesn’t mean I am lonely. I am unhappy because I am single.   Many married people are also unhappy.   I would feel deep satisfaction if I got that promotion.   You get the promotion and you’re still not satisfied. The key word in there is the word, believe.   Our thoughts, our self-talk, our beliefs determine our feelings and emotions not the events in our lives. Let’s say someone says they will call you and set up a time for the two of you to get together and you are very excited about it.   But let’s say they don’t call you as soon as you think you should and you start feeling very hurt and very depressed.   Now the f...

A thought by David Stoop from his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Location 295). Kindle Edition . To one person something happens to them and they see it as a bad thing therefore it makes them mad or discouraged.   They make everybody around them miserable.   But the same thing can happen to another person and they see it from a total different standpoint.   That means their behavior makes everyone happy to be around them. How is your life going?   It depends upon your belief system.   Some believe that our world is falling apart because the Democrats are in power.   Others believe that everything is great because the Democrats are in power?   Which is right?   Both of them are right because of the person's belief system.   And because of our belief it affects our behavior. Our perspective on what is happening and why it is happening goes along way in how we view life and in turn our behavior.   Take for example...

A thought by David Stoop in his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Locations 211-212). Kindle Edition. I too believe this is the key to happiness in our lives.  But the change must happen inside our heart and inside our mind.  The Apostle Paul while in prison said it this way, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”  So it must not be a changing of circumstance but a changing of your outlook and it can be learned. Someone has asked me where was my favorite place to have lived?  I have lived a lot of places and I said, “Where I am living at the time”.  Now I didn’t enjoy the snow on Long Island but I loved living close to my kids and I enjoyed the exercise I got when I shoveled the snow.  I hear so many people say, “I don’t like where I live” and I say, “Then why don’t you move?  And they say, “We can’t afford to move.”  Then I say, “Then chose to be happy where you are. The reality is after a short time you ...

A thought by David Stoop from his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Locations 402-403). Kindle Edition. Notice the word allow, that shows it is you who can control these negative forces of your emotions.  By choosing to continually focus on these life-draining emotions you give death and disease power in your life.  We don’t need to give into this power but give our life over to God’s power by letting Him have our anger, guilt, anxiety and fear.    Now your thoughts tell you where your faith is, they tell you how healthy you are.  Think you’re getting a headache.  You’ll get it.  Think you’ll get a cold.  Here it comes.  Think your kids are going to be a problem at grandmas.  Get ready.  Think you’re going to have a bad day at work.  Be prepared.  I have read a Psalm from the Old Testament every day for years to help me with my self-talk. Look at what David said in Psalm 103:2-6 (Message), “O my soul, b...

A thought by David Stoop in his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Location 217). Kindle Edition. If this is true then why are there so many depressed people in January after all the stuff that they got on Christmas? I mean for so many this is a very downer month.  They looked so forward to getting what they asked for but it didn’t have any lasting effect.  Now it is so easy to believe that our feelings and emotions are determined by the events in our lives.  Some are so excited about being with family at Christmas and their feelings and emotions are so high and then in the middle of their time they start thinking about leaving and their negative emotions take over and they are in deep despair.  The reality is our self-talk, our inner thoughts do help or hurt us in our view of life. Let’s say we have come to realize the truth of this and we start thinking about how great it is to be with family but that we are also excited about going back to our hom...

A though by David Stoop in his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Location 348). Kindle Edition. Have you learned how important this is?  There is so much that comes into our minds that we must not allow to take residence there.  It is junk, it is wrong, and it will hurt you. Now how do you fight against it?  Well first of all through prayer.  You could say, “Ok God.  I know this isn’t from You and I want You to give me thoughts that will counteract this thought.  Please don’t let it take residence in my mind.  Please don’t let me dwell on it but to reject it and release it.” Another way is to have a conversation with yourself in your mind.  I do this all the time.  When a negative thought, say it’s about someone, comes into my mind, I quickly come up with opposite thoughts until I am at peace.  I always strive to give people the benefit of the doubt.  I choose to make people winners.  You see, your thoughts ar...

A though by David Stoop in his book, You Are What You Think (Kindle Location 356). Kindle Edition . That false idea is so easy to believe isn’t it?  You start your day with a fight so you say, “There goes my day.”  Or your team won or lost yesterday and now you are in a good/bad mood. I am a major Los Angeles Dodger fan and there was a time that when they lost I let that totally control my emotions and my behavior.  Eventually I came to realize that I had no control over what they did so why should I let that affect me?   But a fight can be a different thing.  It takes two to fight so you have some responsibility in what happened but you still have to be careful about that controlling your emotions.  Now doing your part in resolving the situation is a good thing if you make it a choice not a reaction. Life is not perfect.  It rains on the just and the unjust so letting something else in your life control you has far reaching consequ...

A though by David Stoop in his book, You Are What You Think ( (Kindle Location 279). Kindle Edition. One of the ways David proves this is by asking people to relax and then for them to close their eyes then take a minute and make themselves sad.  Then he says now take a minute and make yourself happy.   He then asks them, “how did you do it?” and it comes back that they think sad thoughts and then happy thoughts. That is why some people are sad at this time of the year even when things are going well for them and other people are happy even when things aren’t going so well.  It is the power of self-talk.   What you say to yourself, your self-talk determines how you feel.  Try it and see if it is true.  I definitely have found this to be true in my life.  He shows that your belief system in your thought process determines your response to the circumstances of your life.  If you believe that everything is against you then yo...