Let this mind be in you…

Sometime ago, my daughter was complaining about a song she heard and couldn’t get out of her head. She said “Mum, I heard this song yesterday on my way from school, it has been playing in my head since, I even went to bed and woke up this morning and it is still there”. I’m sure we are all familiar with this. We had a discussion about guarding what goes into our minds.

For most Nigerians, the last week has been emotionally distressing for different reasons and most of us have had to cope in different ways. For me, I experienced the closest thing to a panic attack at work for the first time in my life and I had to be picked up by the hubby in the middle of a shift. For our non- Nigerian friends, there was an incident of unjustifiable violence by the government against the youths and this stirred up unrest in the nation.

I had difficulty coping after and had to work a lot on my mind. Because I spent the last week working intentionally on my mind, I find  it imperative  to talk about the mind this week. You see , the mind is our thinking place -that place we freely allow information in and out of without paying attention but has enough power to dictate the course of our lives.

Can I ask you a question? If someone gave you a key to a room with very small items and told you that your success and the direction of your life depends on keeping those items safe, would you let just anyone or anything go in that room? I bet you would guard the key with all your power to  keep those items safe. Some of us would not even let our family and friends in there.

That room with small items is your mind.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life

Proverbs 4 v 23

I am yet to find a religion that doesn’t emphasise the power of the mind but yet we treat it so carelessly. My interpretation of the scripture above is to stand like one of those Grenadier guards outside Buckingham palace, not taking off your gaze for a minute so you don’t miss anything.

This is the reason I consciously try to schedule my social media time  , there is so much garbage going into our hearts/minds from there that we can very easily get lost.

Our minds sometimes run away, travelling back and forth. But there is a quote I heard once that I’ve found very helpful;

Think about what you are thinking about! 

Stop yourself frequently and ask yourself, what am I thinking about? Is this positive or negative? Many people have ruined relationships and destroyed their own progress by fabricating baseless assumptions in their heads and their minds bring it into reality.

Don’t leave your minds without guard!! Be intentional about what you let in, it becomes your thoughts and eventually  your reality. You will literally experience your thoughts if you think them long enough.

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he 

Proverbs 23:7(KJV)

Another version says “so will he become!” You become what you think about. In our generation, social media is a huge part of what goes into our minds so we need to be intentional about it. Don’t follow people that don’t post content you believe in, don’t repost content you don’t agree with . There used to be a slogan on twitter some years ago that said retweets are not endorsements! That’s utter nonsense, why retweet something you don’t agree with?

What / who you watch, what you listen to or read, all determine your future, please be conscious of this and intentional about it also. You can’t afford to be lackadaisical about what goes into your mind, it is not without repercussion.

Next week, we will be talking about helping our child(ren) guards their minds. They are vulnerable and I believe this is an aspect parents do not consciously engage with them on.

We will like to hear your thoughts on guarding your mind and useful tips on what you do and   how you do it. Remember to leave a comment and share with your friends.

I leave you with the peace of God!

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