"Small Thinking"...

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If there is one thing I do NOT like is "preachy" tones and sanctimony. ewww.

I will ask you in advance for a pass if I swing in to that mode...

When God puts a note in my heart it is relentless ...and I believe so strongly in this particular notion that I want to emphasize it as much as possible.

There is a phrase that keeps running through my psyche. Over and over.

Small thinking.
Two simple words- HUGE consequences.


Every time I see an eye roll or an indignant huff... from a stranger- say at a check stand- or a peer I think "you are being arrested by small thinking. "


I work with a large group of women. Strong- smart dynamic women. Each beautiful and gifted in her own right. I am humbled and blessed.
How many of you know what a group of gals in a small place can be like? The phrase -cats in a bag comes to my mind.- Not that it has to be that way but that it has the potential...
You get the picture. Lest you think I am picking on the girls- my husband and I owned a business that operated in 7 states and the boys can trip on the littlest things too... especially the more talented and effective ones, its hard work to keep those egos in line.

Back to my point-I am not suggesting some of us are immune or even should be- I am more or less suggesting that we sound the alarm in our mind to be acutely aware of the besetting habit to think -too small.

Small thinking leads to worry- anxiety- fear- hurt feelings-defensiveness- vain imaginations...it leads to pride, dissension and less destructive on the surface but very insidious-apathy.

I hear people comparing, complaining, very subtly criticizing and my ears burn and my heart sinks.
I HAVE BEEN AND WILL BE GUILTY AGAIN - But one thing God has been working out in me is perspective. He has allowed heartbreak and loss, violation of varying degrees and bitter disappointment to overwhelm my circumstances. He has allowed the unknown to linger in my tent for an extended season...I am growing comfortable with dangling in grace... I would not choose it but I would not give back the gift of it either. Then just when I think I am really good at this "living deeper" stuff, letting go and being broken I run across a story like "Bella Mella's"-

(I can't find her actual address but she is my follower - melanie click on her picture up in my followers box to visit...)
she looks like this-


Did you look? Do you understand what her story is? Her beautiful 12 year old son just passed from this world to eternity in December. She is allowing her loss to resonate in the hearts of all who hear her story. Big Thinker!



~~~~~~"2/8/10
Abba,
To “be still and know” seems not enough. Or too much. In the silence, I stifle a scream. In the stillness, my body rocks. Back and forth. An empty chair moved by the wind. In this world, we will have trouble. Be of good cheer? Yes, alright. The eternal truth that You, indeed, have overcome is the only promise that my heart hears, that my frame obeys.
But not for long. The sighs, the moans, my son’s name under my breath, and the agitated movement of his mother’s body begin again. Yet there will be a day when morning brings more than mourning and silence and stillness are no longer my enemies. Others confide it happens. It must.
My love to You this morning, Abba, for perhaps it is Your ruah that rocks me.

~~~excerpt from her blog...No smallness here.


If you have time to read only one post of hers read Dec. 16 2009.
You will be undone.








Now lets re-visit gossiping and fear/impatience and vain comparisons... SMALL STUFF.

The contrast to those negative outgrowths is the -missed opportunities. The opportunity to dream big as my friend Jeanne is blogging about-

http://www.bushelandapeck.typepad.com/

The chance receive the dream custom made for your life-
Other chances to pour in to the person before you that they are valuable, the things you appreciate about them, why not? What will it cost you?

When you are myopic you can't see the horizon, the vast beauty of all those around you, you also can't see the pain. You miss opportunities to comfort, or quietly empathize. Complaining and comforting are mutually exclusive activities. Its true.

When I consider Melanie's dreams for her sons life and her calling to place them on the alter of trust, I am motivated to fulfill every chance to speak purpose, value, hope and future to all those I encounter.
I don't want the regret of thinking too small, and too inwardly to characterize my days however long or short they may be. I would like to be continually practicing the discipline of thinking big. Relying on the One who's thoughts can't be known and letting him whisper the thoughts I need for today into my heart.

I long to be a big thinker, even on the littlest issues.
Here's to the discipline of checking myself, and not being overcome by the "little foxes."

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."
~ C.S. Lewis


Song of Solomon 2:15 (New Living Translation)

Young Women of Jerusalem
15 Catch all the foxes,
those little foxes,
before they ruin the vineyard of love,
for the grapevines are blossoming!