I saw this analogy on Facebook; it fits so well with this week’s blog that I thought to use it for starters.
Picture yourself holding a cup of coffee when someone bumps into you making you spill your coffee everywhere.
“Why did you spill your coffee?” a bystander asks.
“Because someone bumped into me,” you reply.
Wrong answer!
“You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been cocoa in the cup, you would have spilled cocoa. Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out. Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will spill out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled,” the person said.
So, we have to ask ourselves, “What’s in my cup? When life gets tough, what spills over? Joy, gratitude, peace, and humility? Or anger, bitterness, victim mentality, anxiety, and negativity?”
Life provides the cup; YOU choose how to fill it. Imagine what would happen if we filled our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, resilience, positivity, kindness, gentleness, and love for others?
We are bombarded with negative thoughts and news reports from dawn until we go to bed and are able to turn off the outside world. In the stillness of the night, we are left with our thoughts.
How do we overcome the battle that rages in the human mind? And how does that affect our entire thought process?
The bad news is that with even a casual observation we will see that the constant diet of bad and negative news leaves one’s mind severely malnourished. That can lead to a cynical mindset which can lead to a sense of hopelessness, anxiety, and eventually to despair.
Satan is the raging bull who can plant negative thoughts in our minds that seem to fester like a sliver deep in the palm of our hand. Satan is out to destroy us, and the mind is the arena he will try to gore us to death.
What do we do if all we are subjected to is bad or negative words? How do we stay positive in a negative world?
How do we stay positive without denying the reality that we live in a negative world? The good news lies in the Word of God. The Bible encourages a positive attitude by focusing on God’s goodness and trusting in His plan even amidst challenges.
Psalm 37 tells us to be intentional in pursuing positivity in your life with these words: “Trust in the Lord; feed on His faithfulness; delight yourself in the Lord; commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him; rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; cease from anger; forsake wrath; do not fret.”
Philippians 4:8 gives further ways to be intentional in seeking to have positive thoughts such as: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever is just, pure, lovely, of good news, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, THINK on these things.”
We can also be intentional by seeking out like-minded believers, submerge ourselves in the Bible; pray with expectation that God will answer our prayers; do not be anxious, and for every negative thought we encounter, we can think of a good rebuttal.
So when the raging bull charges us or we conjure up negative thoughts on our own, look to see what God has to say about protecting our hearts and minds to stay positive in a negative world. See Psalm 18: 32-33; Psalm 31:24; Psalm 34:5, 8; Psalm 94:18-19; for further encouragement