Yet Another Year of Choices
By Barbara Dahlgren
The Bible tells us to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) This is just a fancy way of saying we need to control our thoughts, not let our thoughts control us.
While we may not be able to control everything that happens to us, we are still responsible for how we think, act, feel and respond in any given situation. At times our choices may be limited, but we can still choose to “act” responsibly instead of “react” negatively. Will we respond with strength or weakness, courage or despair, love or hate? How we respond makes a big difference in our quality of life. Our response actually begins in our thought process.
When we “react” to what life throws our way, we allow circumstances and other people to determine our behavior. We let our emotions control what we do. Many times reacting is an autopilot response resulting from previous programmed behavior. In other words, we don’t really think about our responses, we just react subconsciously based on what we’ve always done. Old habits die hard.
However, when we “act,” we are making a conscious choice. We have to actually think and evaluate each situation. Our goal should be to do what God’s Word would have us do, not what we want to do or what we feel like doing. Therefore, each circumstance becomes a learning experience, helping us grow in grace and knowledge.
Daily life is full of stress, frustration, and offense. What do we do when faced with a whiny kid, annoying spouse, or difficult boss? What do we do when we feel hassled? Do we lash out, blow up in anger, say hurtful things, or try to get even? Scriptures teach us that these are not healthy responses and will not produce positive results.
We can determine some of our responses by planning ahead.
When we are stuck in a traffic jam, do we fuss, fume and make ourselves miserable? Those reactions do not produce good fruit. When we drift into the habit of reacting, even minor irritants become monumental. We lose perspective. Since we all know traffic jams are inevitable, why not decide ahead of time how to act when they happen? Perhaps when a traffic jam occurs, we could plan to listen to music, listen to a book on CD, count our blessings, thank God we aren’t in the accident causing the jam, pray for the person who is, or meditate on Jesus’ teachings.
When someone is rude, do we react by being rude too? Do we say, “Are you always so stupid or is today a special occasion?” Or “Keep talking and maybe someday you’ll say something intelligent!” God tells us how to deal with difficult people in Colossians 4:6. If we internalize scriptures, we can determine ahead of time that we will consciously choose to be gracious even when others are not. We will be courteous and respectful to everyone – friends and enemies.
Consider this… Automatic thoughts which lead to thoughtless reactions will lead us astray. They need to be brought under control – into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) One way to accomplish this is to think about what is true, honest, lovely, virtuous, of good report, and praise worthy. (Philippians 4:8) Why? Because when our minds are filled with such thoughts, we are less likely to react inappropriately.
One final thought…
Learn to respond, not react. There is a difference.
