Listened to a great speaker/pastor last night by the name of Ian Hales who gave an interesting illustration with a huge point.
First he talked about how his wife – hates spiders. Truly hates spiders.
Can’t you visualize them… lots of eight legged round things, little or big hairy legs, quick footed to say the least – and they bite. Multi colored generally drab browns and blacks. Can you think about their size? They come in all sizes from wolf spiders or dock spiders which is my area are more common than tarantulas which seem gigantic being the size of a large man’s palm – down to little web spinners who have laid the trap to get their next meal. And how abour another visual – how about the gigantic spider waiting in forest/cave of the Harry Potter movie, or the other big mother who was hiding in the mountain waiting for Frodo… or the one that might be right now climbing up the leg of your chair. Get the picture?
On the other hand Ian loves ice cream – and so do I! And the thought of an ice cream – my preference would be a soft vanilla in a cone – McDonalds style (which is a bit sweet) or a large Dairy Queen vanilla dipped in chocolate – (which is not my preference…where did the butterscotch go?) but still is worth the trip and I don’t usually need to be asked twice! I liked the strawberry shortcake McFlurrie thing McDonalds did a few years back too now that I think of it. Ian’s preference was the DQ banana split. He liked the banana split in half, bottomed with whipped cream, topped with whip cream – three big dollops of vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate sauce on one, caramel on another ..maybe some walnuts or peanuts …and you can almost taste it.
Now….did you forget about the spiders?
I did.
The point?
Our thinking can be directed.
Our thinking can be controlled.
We are affected by what we think about. What we read. What we watch. What we see.
We have a choice and we can choose.
Are you thinking thoughts that are sending you in the ditch – changing it is as easy as thinking of ice cream…or your best friend, or the birds singing, or your son’s wedding, or the precious tears of your daughter-in-law that you love or creation..and probably you just proved it to yourself!
As easy as that!
You don’t need to settle for spiders- you can live with Ice Cream!