Do you dig for dirt?
There was a “troubled couple who visited a Christian counselor for help. The wife’s physician had advised her to see a counselor because she was developing an ulcer that apparently had no physical cause.During the session, the wife slammed down on the counselors desk a manuscript ‘one-inch thick, on 8½ by 11 paper, typewritten on both sides…a thirteen-year record of wrongs that her husband had done to her.The counselor could immediately see that the wife’s resentment of her husband’s many faults and her meticulous documentation of each one had made her bitter.Keeping a record of her husband’s sins had only made matters worse, to the point of causing this woman to become physically ill.” [Quoted in Alexander Strauch’s Leading with Love, pg. 72]
The great distinctive of the love of God is that there are no strings [or records] attached to it.
God simply loves humans.
God created us for a love relationship with the Divine Self, and nothing that we can do—or not do—changes the love God bears us.
God loves sinners, redeems failures, delights in second chances and fresh starts, and never tires of pursuing lost sheep, waiting for prodigal children, or rescuing those damaged by life and left on the sides of its paths. Dr David Benner
4 Keys to Ripping up a ‘Record Book’ Mentality.
1. Ask yourself why ‘record keeping’ is important for you.
What is driving you to keep account? What fruit does it give you? Unless you know what this behaviour offers you in return, then you are bound to repeat it. Trace, face and displace those motivations with Gods truth about you.
2. Look for gold and diamonds.
3. Be thankful.
4. Pray and ask God for an increased supernatural ability to forgive.
We are made in the image of God, who has the ability to choose to forgive.
That being the case, then we can be of the same mindset.
Pray, ask God to transform your mind, to change the mental neuron mapping of your brain that habitually goes down that ‘record keeping’ pathway.
Together with God, you can change the way you think, neuron by neuron.
Quotes to consider
- Grace is totally alien to human psychology. We want to get our house in order and then let God love and accept us. Dr David Benner
- Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive. C.S. Lewis
- Good Mental health is not keeping a list of wrongs. Do you?
Questions to answer
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Why do people keep a ‘record of wrongs’?
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Do you think God, in partnership with you, can change your thinking?
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Why is it that what you focus on will always take you to that place? What do you focus on?
Photo Credit: Second-tree via Compfight cc
