Choosing Wise Words - Chapter 3

I'm a day behind. We had a 3 day weekend and those always seem to throw me off. Happily sharing with you what God spoke to me about in our Yes to God book study Self Talk, Soul Talk by Jennifer Rothschild is never too late.

Thanks again to Lelia our fearless leader at Write From the Heart for leading this blog study. If you want to read what others are sharing pop on over to Lelia's blog and you can read what the other woman are finding out.

Okay on with the study. This was another chapter of ahas for me. Last week I had been determined to take my thoughts captive. I was feeling really down, and I have to tell you that every day after I shared with you all I felt up lifted. I did have to battle my own thoughts, and stop and ask myself what would Jesus tell me. So this week I am feeling really good. I'm starting to replace those ugly words with God's loving words, and it's soooo much better.

Jennifer first caught me with this, "We live by our assumptions, our beliefs about the way things are. We often aren't even aware of such ideas until we exercise a little self-examination. Our thoughts and our actions flow from or assumptions." I'm not sure about you, but I never really thought about that. The things we learn, and are told, and perceive about our self ooze out into the way we are and the way we expect people to treat us, and yes the way we treat others.

Jennifer compared this to a tree bearing fruit. "our assumptions are the root, and our thoughts are the fruit. The root of wrong thinking is always a faulty assumption. The root of right thinking is always an assumption based on truth."

But here is the deal, we can't just cut off the fruit, we have to dig up the tree by the root to get rid of it. I know of two roots that I have been shown over the last year, one is a tree that root is abandonment that one is a big one and the other root is insecurity and low self esteem, and then in a weird way I think there is one of pride. These are the trees I'm going to start with, the ones God has shown me for now. There are probably others too and I'm sure God will show them to me as He guides me through this process.

So first I need to be able to recognize truth. Jennifer tells us that first we are to "Request Wisdom" Ask God to give you wisdom He wants us to ask. Jennifer referenced James 1:5 "In any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" Could it be that easy, God loves me and He wants me to make choices on based on His truth and guidance through the Holy Spirit. So I have to ask for wisdom, and then believe that I will receive it.

Next is to "Revere God" Jennifer quotes Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." "To fear the Lord doesn't mean to be deathly afraid of Him. No He is good and kind. But He is also just and worthy of our highest regard and respect. To fear the Lord means we reverence Him. It means to show deference and respect." We need to look at who's opinion we value more, who's truth do you seek. We need to look to God for our truth, search the scriptures He breathed life into, and pray.

Third is to "Receive Counsel" once again she reaches into Proverbs for these wise words, "the wise of heart will receive commands". and then she reminds us "When we walk with wisdom, it will wear off on us." I love the interview she had with Patsy Clairmont. Patsy shared with her something that struck me and this was my aha moment.

Patsy said, "I had so many people saying things to me that were in conflict with what I was saying about myself. One us had to be wrong!" So when I had more and more people saying the same positives to me, and my words were all negative, I had to stop and say, Everyone can't be wrong. Do I trust their judgment? And do I think they are wise? Am I willing to receive what they are saying is truth? If I am, then I have to change the messages in me."

That struck me right to my core, because I do that. I have people tell me things, positive things and I have this negative tape in my head saying they are wrong, or I just put it off as they don't really know me. Now though, I have to ask myself these questions about the people who say positive things to me. Do I trust their judgment, do I think they are wise? Some of these people I can say absolutely, in fact one lady came to mind that I have thought of as a mentor for a while, she was always telling me the opposite of what I'd tell myself. There are others too, my husband, my sister I trust their judgement. There are few who I can say I don't believe they are sincere when they say things to me, so them I just let it go.

I remember taking a test at church one Sunday last May about our Spiritual gifts. Mine scored high in areas that were quite shocking to me. As the pastor went through them and asked people to raise there hands if they had this or that, my friend sitting next to me kept saying, why didn't you raise your hand look you scored high on that one, or raise your hand higher. I told her that I think I scored it wrong these can't be right. She looked at me and said let me see it. Then she said to me I can totally see these in you. I was stunned, my husband said the same thing. I couldn't see them in myself, and kept telling myself that I would redo it later. I put the list away, and hadn't thought of it until just now. Funny I know where it is to it's in my workbook another friend gave us called Experiencing God. Guess it's time to look at the test and do that study.

So on with this journey I go. This morning I started praying for wisdom from God, and I believe He will give it to me. I'm trusting in Him to show me how to take out the root of these trees, and plant new and beautiful sweet truthful fruit.

Love,

Carol