Wednesday, January 12, 2011

some thoughts

I am learing that what one fills the mind with is sure to have an effect on how one percieves, as well as lives, the world in which they live. I'm not just talking about what one watches on t.v but more so what a person reads.

Books, or more so what is contained in a book (aka thoughts), are a very powerful source. I never understood why Hitler would destroy thousands (possibly millions) of books during WWII but Hitler obviously new what I am learning now. Books are a gateway to changing a persons thoughts. No wonder why he didn't want people reading and it also explains as to why he target any intellectuals as well.

There are so many books out there today filled with thoughts, thoughts about God, sex, life, eating well, fashion, and each of those books may contain simularities within the same genre but ultimately every book also represents someone else's thoughts. And if one is good at articulating One person can literally shape what the next generation is going to think.

That's kind of scary to me because so many of us don't know how to think through things and we can often buy into the next "rational" line of thinking without a second opionion.

Should we stop reading then? well no, obviously not nor should we go and destroy every book that we don't agree with either but it definately challenges me to be careful as to what I am filling my head with. What ideas am I buying into that I may not even realize I am agreeing too. And all the more it makes me think how much more I need to be reading my Bible.

We can fill our heads with all kinds of books on spirituality and such but when it comes to picking up our bibles and filling our minds with scripture, well that is just so often too hard.

I have been convicted in this area latlely. Thankfully, i have a good friend that is challenging me and helping me stay commited to reading my Bible. but it has been all to easily, easy, for me to bypass the "good book" for a book that is good but not as good.

Not that I think we should just all read our bibles because that will fix all our problems, or that I think we need to check it off our list so that we can say we had been a "good little christian" for that day. But for the fact that I am realizing more and more that what we fill our minds with we will indeed percieve our lives and the lives around us through.

So then why not be filling our minds a little bit everyday with good truths. Why not remind ourselves a little every day of who are God is? Why not take a look at the past and try our best to learn from others mistakes?

One other thing, I'm not advocating that we stop reading other "spiritual" books all together just that we use them as my husband put it "to be a dialog along with our bible reading." I would hate to have all my bible knowledge be that from other books that are about the bible and not actually from my bible itself.

----

Lately I've been reading 1Samuel and let me tell you reading about Saul's sins has shown me a great deal of my own sin issues that I need to work on. Not that I am going around trying to kill a blameless man, but I will admit that there was a time when I read about Saul and was like "You dummy, how can you keep running away from God's plans." and Now I'm kind of like "Sara, you dummy, why do you try to keep running away from God's plans." interesting.

I've also been reading through the psalms, mostly i tend to pick a Psalm at random but each psalm is unique while being sure to point out a characteristic or charateristic(S) of the the Lord... How much my prayer life has changed by just reading another's simple prayer ever day. It makes me want to pray my own prayer every day.

Something has begun to change in me this Month, it's like I have a faith again, that honestly believes that God can do anything, that he really is powerful, that he really is in control and I am seeking and yearning and eagerly waiting to watch what wonderful, majestic thing he does in my daily life, even if that is 'just' giving me a little piece of fresh air and encouragment.

No comments: