It's All In Your Mind

I have a problem. I complain. A lot. The Bible says we overcome by our testimony (confession), so there is mine. I challenged myself today to not complain about anything, not even once. I didn't even make it out of my front door.  Words and thoughts are so powerful. I'm a firm believer in shaping my own reality, so being aware of my tendency to cling to the negative rather than positive points me to a much broader issue. A cycle of negative thinking. That's no way to live. Every time I caught myself complaining or about to complain, I made a point to replace the negative thought with something positive , e.g., "Ugh! Austin is so hot!"... "It's a beautiful, sunny day!".

I went to a body sculpting class and this tiny, I'd guess S. American by her accent, woman of 50ish just murdered muscles in my body that I'd forgotten I even had. Armed with a little exercise ball and 2 lb weights (!!!) she inflicted levels of physical pain such that I've never experienced prior nor hence. She said before we started that many people leave her class. As soon as she said that, I made up my mind that I was at the very least going to get through the end. Sure, I looked at the clock a few (or several) times. Meanwhile, she plowed through reps while I took a rest about every 5 minutes. I finished though. And I'm going back. I want to go to that class until it gets easier. If she can do it then I can make it through an entire class too.

By making up your mind and keeping it set you change your world. I made one decision, and as a result I did things I didn't know were possible for me to do an hour before that class started. I could've easily walked out, got some fro-yo, and enjoyed the rest of my hot (sunny) Texas day, but I did the hard thing.  It's so easy to complain. To find the negative. The world we live in almost encourages it. If I want to be happy, stable, and unshaken on a daily basis I have to find a way to deal with life as it comes. Romans 12:2 states "Be conformed not to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (thoughts), so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect." God's will is not for us to be upset about every little thing. We were built for hard. We were built to be happy (content) in spite of what's going on around us. That is His will, and I'm going to prove it to myself.