Today I am starting my day with positive thoughts. I have realized this is a major source of my stress. I normally wake up and start worrying about the tasks to be done today or the problems I am carrying.
Instead of giving them to God first, I try and to solve them as if I have the power to do so. Then the negative thoughts take over and I start “gerbiling.” I think I made up that word along with others that are not in the dictionary like “hinky.” What I mean is that I start twirling like a gerbil in a cage, putting out lots of energy but going nowhere but in circles.
When I worry like this I am not trusting God first. This is spiritual attack. One of the gifts that God has given me is the ability to multi-task. But worry is taking multi-tasking to a whole new level. Satan knows one way to tempt me is in my mind. I let him in and the mind games begin. It is pride that makes me think I can solve these problems. God hates pride. Satan uses pride as a way of getting to me.
It is my gift of being able to problem solve that made me a good Emergency Room nurse back in the days. I would always go to the worst-case scenario, rule it out, and then go to the next possible problem. I was a part of saving lots of lives doing this. This gift served me well as an ER nurse.
But it does not serve me well in my daily walk. I can get way far ahead of myself and think about the worst problem conjuring it up before it could even happen. Then the stress takes over my waking and sleeping.
A friend of mine, who has more problems than a person ought to, said to me “I choose happiness.” Wow, if she can so can I.
So each morning, when I wake up, I thank God and I say, “Today I choose happiness”. I proceed to write or talk about 5 things that I am grateful for from the day before.
It does work. Try it. Repeat after me, “I choose happiness. I am grateful for . . .” Now you list 5. Bet you come up with more than 5!