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| Keeping our eyes out for beautiful places while we run errands. |
The Contentment Challenge is over, how'd ya do? (Not sure what I am talking about click HERE! to find out more. )
Challenging myself to focus on gratitude every day for 7 days really opened my eyes about where I put my focus. I think that I learned a lot that I want to keep implementing into my daily life.
My 3 Takeaways from The Contentment Challenge
1. What I read and put into my mind makes a HUGE difference in my thought life.
While I was on the Contentment Challenge, I was reading two vastly different books. One was a very sad story about motherhood and the other was Uninvited by Lysa Terkeurst. Each story was impacting me in different ways. I would feel uplifted or depressed depending on which one I was reading. I remembered something I heard when I was in a college group at church: "If you put garbage in, you get garbage out." The pastor was referencing what we allow into our minds.
If I dwell on depressing stories or negative thoughts, it impacts how I feel about myself and my life.
2. Just because a thought comes into my mind doesn't mean I have to think it.
This is something that I learned while reading The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (which is an amazing book!) The whole premise is that we each have a demon that is assigned to us to tempt us from following God's will for our lives. And that is something that I truly believe.
It is good for us to check our thoughts and align them with the truth of God's Word. If it doesn't line up with that, we can literally dismiss it and move on. We do not have to dwell on it because it might not even be from us or God.
And the BIGGEST thing:
3. We have a choice on what we will do with our thoughts: Dwell on them or expel them.
I feel a little like Joyce Meyer when I make up rhymes about God's truth but it's so catchy! We have the choice on what we focus on. It is something that is easy to forget.
The Contentment Challenge helped me to remember to be intentional with my thought life.
Did it help you remember important truths or teach you new ones?