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
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
