Criminal Finds Success

This past week I was reminded of the first time I stole something. I started my criminal record as a hardened 3 years old, and I stole a Siamese kitten from my grandparent's cat's recent litter. I wanted that kitten, but my parents said no. So as we got ready to leave my grandparent's house, I quickly tucked the little ball of fluff under my coat while my parents were busy saying their goodbyes. 

Now, I don't know how I thought I was going to keep this cat a secret but I guess somehow I thought it would work out, so I was terrified when a few miles down the road a faint "mew" escaped from inside of my coat! My Dad slammed on the breaks and began to scold me, but with my Mom's coaxing he saw how much I wanted the kitten and that's how I got to keep my Siamese cat named Tiger...and how I saw the benefits of theft. (Check out next week's blog "Stealing is BAD") Growing up, Tiger and I were inseparable: he seemed to know he was my cat, he slept on my bed every night and just days after I went to college, my Mom found that old cat had died on my bed, curled up in his sleep. The memory of stealing Tiger brought up all the emotions of fear turning to joy that I had experienced as a 3 year old boy.

Remembering the good that's happened in our lives awakens powerful emotions. 

Unfortunately, the same happens when we're reminded of the negative events in our lives: we instantly become discouraged and frustrated.

Negative memories actually take up more space in our brains than positive memories since we usually process the negative over and over. It's like a movie playing in our minds as we watch the negative event unfold and soon we're thinking about how we could have done it better, what we should have said, and the frustration of our failures. But we don't have to watch this movie! We CAN change the channel.

We can't move on to the good things Jesus has in store for us if we stay on the bad.

Bad breaks happen to us all so we have to train our minds to remember the good. God never told us to remember our defeats. Just imagine what would happen if we'd spend our time going over our successes instead of our defeats! 

In the past, God instructed His people to throw week-long parties several times a year just to celebrate their victories! We can celebrate our victories everyday if we just take a moment to dwell on how we met our spouse, when we kicked an addiction, how Jesus set us free, or the memory of the day our kids were born--God gave us amazing victories before, He can do it again! 

Go over all the successes in life: remember how God protected you when you couldn't protect yourself, advanced you beyond what you were qualified to do, helped you make the right decision...or gave you a childhood friend when what you really deserved was a spanking! Remember the WIN--not all the mistakes made in the process!

Don't stay busy remembering what you should be forgetting. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions--change the channel when it's negative. We all have bad breaks sometimes, but it's worth the effort to remember all the GOOD God has done for us!

Our Lord, I will remember the things You have done, Your miracles of long ago. I will think about each one of Your mighty deeds. Everything You do is right, and no other god compares with You. Psalm 77:11-13