The Minion Has a Dream

OK, my last post was all about day dreams or thoughts and how we need to be careful where we allow our mind to focus.  For many thoughts, I said that we need to keep them from running our mind.  So now it may sound like I am contradicting myself but I want to talk about allowing certain day dreams or thoughts that we want to run around in our mind until they do take root and cause us to change.

In my previous blog, I discussed thoughts that would lead to bad situations.  I have heard of people who want desperately to be married to each other.  The only problem is that they are both married to different people right now.  They begin to think so much about being with each other that eventually they do something that causes terrible pain in not only their own lives but the lives of others.  These situations start with a thought.
So let's spend a few minutes talking about thoughts that we should continue to think and mediate.  Let me give you an example of one..  I have said before that at one time I weighed 350 pounds.  That's pretty big right.  I was round almost.  I was 67" tall and 58" around.  That's not a good place.  Well several years before I lost any weight, I started seeing myself healthy.  I started seeing myself wearing slim clothes.  I could see myself water skiing and doing many other things.  I could see myself actually outside playing with my kids.  I even thought about what it would be like to be able to stand up, look straight down, and see my shoes. 

That sounds kind of crazy right?  Well I couldn't see my feet at that weight.  Here is a big one - I could see myself sitting on an airplane and not needing a seat belt extender.  I actually went as far as to start saying that I weigh 205 pounds.  Think about it.  That's totally ridiculous.  Now I didn't say this to other people.  I just said this to myself.  Did you know that is exactly what Abram did.  God changed his name from Abram to Abraham.  He was 90 years old and his wife was too.  They had no children and he started walking around saying I am the father of many nations.  Well guess what?  When you start lining your words and thoughts up with Gods, miracles happen.

Now, when I first started day dreaming about this stuff, nothing happened.  As a matter of fact, for several years everything stayed the same.  I didn't lose weight and I didn't exercise.  But one day, that vision became so big inside me that it started to change my actions.  I ultimately took this problem to the Lord and he delivered me from my addiction to carbohydrates.

Now this isn't some type of magic formula.  I didn't lose weight because I saw myself losing weight.  I lost it because God delivered me from carbohydrates and then I started eating right and exercising.  Remember, the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.  But what this did do for me was it gave me motivation.  I still had to do the work.  However as that vision of being skinny began to develop on the inside of me, gradually I wanted it more than I wanted pizza. 

What are your goals in life?  Those are things you should think about.  See yourself passing the chemistry test.  See yourself getting out of debt.  See yourself healed and whole.  When you start putting the right images in front of you, you will gravitate toward them.  Just like with the negative images, you will start to make your dreams a reality.

So if you aren't happy with some part of your life, maybe it's time to start getting a vision for where you want to go and what you want to be.  I know for me, I can get lost in the day-to-day grind of daily life and lose sight of what is really important.  I think I need to spend a little time working on my vision for my life today.

Thats' another Opinion of the Minion 

Another Fox Takes On the Minion

OK today I want to deal with a strange subject.  Let's talk about dreams.  In this particular blog, I am going to deal with deal with bad fantasies.  Before anyone goes down the wrong track, I am not talking about sex although those can be very dangerous.  I am talking about other kinds of dreams/fantasies.

Have you ever heard the saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence"?  Well most of the time, that isn't true.  The problem with always looking at how green the grass is on the other side of the fence is that at some point you will want to get on that side of the fence and you can destroy your side in the process.

I know in my own life, if I start thinking about something long enough, I will try to get whatever I am thinking about.  In the process I hurt myself more than once.

Now let me give you an example from my life that will illustrate the point.  Fifteen or twenty years ago, I would get hit with the new car bug about once a year.  Now back then, I couldn't afford much of anything. I was married and even before we had kids, we struggled financially because of my poor choices.  Anyway, I might see a car running down the road or on TV and the bug would hit.  I would start thinking about getting a new car.  I would day dream about it and then the next thing you know I was at the car dealership actually attempting to buy a new car.  Because my credit was so bad, I didn't get to buy one but if I could, I would.  I couldn't afford what I had much less trying to buy something new.

Here is another area that caused me a lot of trouble.  I would start thinking about food a lot.  I weighed 350 pounds and you don't keep yourself at that weight without eating unhealthy all the time.  I never found a buffet I didn't like but there were plenty that didn't like me because I ate all their profits.  I wanted to eat out every meal.  Now we couldn't afford to do it but that didn't stop me from doing it.  I could even eat out when I had no money.  Did you know that before I was finished eating breakfast, I was thinking about what to eat for lunch.  Food consumed my thoughts.

How did I eat out without using money?  You might guess credit cards but that would be incorrect.  I was so broke and my score was so bad that credit card companies would not give me a credit card.  Did I steal food?  Well no.  So here is what I did.  We would have no money in our bank account but I would go to the grocery store and cash a check anyway.  I would reason that the check wouldn't clear my bank before I put my paycheck in the bank so what was the harm right?  Unfortunately, that would not be the case many times.  The check I wrote would get to the bank before my paycheck and then I would have to pay the bank $20 and the store $20 for the $25 check I wrote.  So I would have to pay $65 for a meal that wasn't worth it.  Why did I do that?  Because my thoughts were consumed with food.

Now that was a real problem but the same type of problem can be much worse if someone was always thinking about another man's wife or how about how much money someone else has?  These types of thoughts are from the devil and we have to be very careful of them.  So what should you do when you get them?  First of all, you have to recognize them for what they are.

They are thoughts that don't line up with the way God wants us to think.  They are thoughts that can lead us to do something stupid.  Now let me give you something else to consider.  If you are always thinking about getting to a better place than where you are now, you will never be happy.  After we recognize that those thoughts aren't good for us, we have to make the conscious decision to think about something else.  When we do then God can help us change the direction of our thinking.  That's what the bible calls casting down imaginations and things that exalt themselves against God.

Just remember that where you spend most of your thought time, you will eventually try to go in real life.  Be careful of where you want to go as many times those fantasy places are not even real.  If we aren't watchful of those thoughts, they can lead us to make bad decisions that can really effect us.

That's another Opinion of the Minion