On the Attack

I was listening to a podcast (yay podcasts!) and the moderator said you have to look where you want to go, not where you don't want to go. 

He told a story about a racecar driver who was hurtling around a track when he started staring at the wall because it was right there in front of his face. The person with him in the car forcibly turned his head away from the wall and toward the track. He said, "If you stare at the wall while you're driving you are going to hit it."  

Sometimes something we don't want to be is right in front of us and we can't stare at it. 

Our Pastor said something on the same subject in Sunday School a few weeks ago. He was talking about the armor of God and said that we weren't supposed to just resist Satan. We were supposed to attack- be on the offensive and not just the defensive. Look at what you want and not just at what you don't want.

So I started thinking about what that could look like played out in my life. So much of living seems to be running from something bad instead of searching for something good.  (If you live with that mindset you will end up with a list of rules to follow to help you avoid the bad and you won't have cultivated a relationship with your Savior.)

What if, instead of simply trying to not be short and grumpy with the husband (which leaves me focused on when I'm grumpy), I attacked by extending graciousness toward him. If my goal was to always be gracious toward my husband I would no longer be focused on when I was feeling grumpy.  I would be focused on being gracious. 

What if instead of trying to not to be angry and inconsistent with kids, I attacked with cheerfulness and a Biblical viewpoint on kids and discipline? 

What if instead of trying not to be moody and irritable as a woman,  I attacked to be a gracious, godly lady? If I tried to be gracious instead of just not grumpy? There is a difference there, don't you think?  There's the 'not grumpy' woman and there's the 'gracious' woman. Which once would you pick? 

What if I looked at life through the lens of what I want to be and not the lens of what I don't want to be?

There are lots of things in front of me that I don't want to be and it's easy for me to focus on them out of fear. Fear of being that. Fear of never growing into something more. But I want to change my mindset. I decided that I didn't want to make decisions out of fear and I don't want to think out of fear either. 

I don't want to focus on the negative behavior; I want to train myself in right behavior. 

Retraining my thoughts is what it all comes back to isn't it? It's a mind game and focus matters. That was also in the Ruth Simons Inspired to Action podcast. She was talking about what you rehearse through the day. Do you tell you, "All I do is pick up clothes, wash dishes, and change diapers."? Or do you speak truth to yourself in your thoughts (Ps. 15:1). Do I paralyze myself with fear of what could be? Sadly the answer is often yes. 

I want to be on the attack instead of always playing D. On the offensive of pushing toward what God wants me to become instead of just running from what I don't want to be. Don't you like the idea of pushing to master something better than running from something- constantly looking over your shoulder? That gives me a mental image of sprinting down a dark alley running from a serial killer. I like the idea of running an obstacle course better: dodging the dangers but focusing on the goal. I want to be a godly, gracious, graceful woman: spirit, soul, and body transformed by the work of Christ in my life. 

So the next time you find yourself saying, "But I don't want to be that!" Stop! Ask yourself what you do want to be and then run toward that.