Our recalibrate series continues. Isn’t it interesting how, when you begin to ponder something, it shows up everywhere you look? It’s kind of like buying a bird-egg blue Taurus. You’re sure it’s the only one of its kind, so you take that baby home. Then, you see bird-egg blue Tauruses on every corner! It isn’t that they suddenly appeared, but that you suddenly were on the lookout for them.
So, this concept of recalibrating different areas of life has continued to nip at me. Recently, our car has been making weird noises. Something is amiss, and the longer we wait, the louder and more frequent the noise becomes. It needs some attention to its inner workings. You cannot see the problem by looking at the car, but there is clearly an issue.
This started me thinking about internal baggage. We all have it, and the longer we carry it, the heavier it gets. Nobody on the outside can see it, but it makes us feel all hunched over, and the pain increases.
Consider a backpack full of heavy rocks. The longer you carry it, the more stooped over you become. However, as you remove the rocks, one by one, the bag becomes lighter. Don’t we need to look inside our lives to see what “rocks” need eliminating?
We often collect these rocks without conscious awareness. Someone betrays our trust, so we hold a grudge and become bitter. A trusted loved one physically or emotionally harms us, and anger grows into unforgiveness. Abandonment and rejection sow seeds of self-loathing, and we begin to believe the lie that these are what we deserve.
Today, I want to challenge you, to let go of your rocks! Hebrews 12:1 challenges us to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that entangles us. Throw fear, anxiety, wounds, mistakes, and failures to the ground. Determine to stop pleasing man, and focus on what God desires for your life. Put on God’s love, instead. Be anxious for nothing, but pray about everything (Philippians 4:6).
Print this list if you need guidance on things that might be hindering you. https://deniseprosser.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/recalibrate-what-you-wear-print.pdf
When you start to feel unsteady and out of kilter, be mindful of what you’re mindful of. Think about what you think about, and pay attention to what you’re paying attention to. Call in the peace that passes all understanding and can only come from Christ Jesus. Speak calming messages to yourself. Seek God and ask for His help. Use this list to help recalibrate your thoughts. https://deniseprosser.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/RECALIBRATE-your-mind-print.pdf
There is one more area of our “insides” that often needs recalibrated, and that’s our self-talk. When we constantly feed ourselves messages of perceived and expected failure, inadequacy, and insecurity, we block the wonderful plans God has for our lives. There are loops of messages that run frequently inside our heads, and if we’re honest, many are unkind and even untrue. So, instead of simply telling ourselves not to think those mean thoughts and messages, we must intentionally replace them with different messages.
Life is hard, and sometimes we find ourselves discouraged or even hopeless. When your forward progress is stuck in the quicksand of life, and everything within you wants to give up, change the loop! Here are some new messages for your heart. https://deniseprosser.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/recalibrate-self-talk-printable.pdf
When we change what we carry, what we think, and what we tell ourselves, we can’t help but change our direction. Positive thoughts and ideas restore us to a place of forward movement, back on our God-created path. When our thoughts are different, our words are different. Our words change our actions. Changed behavior changes our trajectory, and we find ourselves making a difference in the world, just as God intended.