Right Voices, Right Choices

I read about a man being asked on his wedding day if he was nervous about his wedding. "No way," he replied nonchalantly. "It's going to be a cup of cake." Every one of us gets tongue tied from time to time and words just don't come out the way they should. Thank God for good editors or else you would especially find that true in these blogs. Even the other day when I was feeling a bit stressed about a matter, my inner voice was saying, "Just be cool Steve. You can handle this. Stay as cool as a Q-Tip." A Q-Tip, really? How about as cool as a cucumber. I even misspoke to myself.

Recently I was sharing about the power of "training our brain" to focus and see the good in a situation. I used the example of a policeman and how they're trained to see what's broken and flawed so as to protect and serve. I guess when I say it like that it seems a bit oximoronish. Focusing on the broken to keep things right. Yet, have you ever had a policeman drive up next to you at a stop light and give you the thumbs up for all your tails lights working? Have you ever been stopped for driving the speed limit? That's not going to happen. Yet every time we drive pass a policeman we immediately get all tense and nervous wondering if we're "breaking the law".

Just as our Law Enforcement has been trained to see what's broken, we've allowed that same thing to happen to us. Because of the negative going on around us in the World, we've "trained our brain" to see and emphasize the negative and many times because we are seeing what's broken and flawed, we speak about what's broken and flawed. As the Bible says, "...out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45)

We have exactly 31 days in 2011 to finish this year strong and finish strong we shall. But it's going to take getting our brain, our heart, and our mouth on the same page. This is not the time to misspeak. We have to articulate it right so that we can keep the conditions around us right for a great finish. It's similar to rounding the last hundred yards of the 5-K Heart Walk/Run our staff was involved in last year. I'm in no way a runner, but I sure wanted to get this thing over with as quickly as possible. As I rounded the corner with Desiree, our wonderful bookkeeper, we were both feeling it and ready to just walk across the finish line. Our bodies were telling us to slow down and just cruise, but our brains were shouting at us to finish strong. So I began yelling to her and at her, "let's go Dez. Run, faster, faster, we're going to finish." She's yelling back, "No, I'll walk...I'm tired." But she didn't walk. Instead, she listened to my ranting and the two of us ran across the finish line and finished strong.

On this PrayDay let me encourage you to do two things as you prepare to cross the finish line in 2011. First, make sure you're listening to the right voices that should inspire you to do your best and be your best. Right voices, right choices. And second, train your brain and mouth to speak words of affirmation, encouragement, and truth. And while you're running, I'll be right beside you yelling, "You can do it. You can finish strong." For as Proverbs 18:21 declares, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." You will finish strong!

Speaking of the right voices, be at MLC tonight to catch Pastor Mary speaking in our Wednesday night service. We'll have the entire team ready to go for a great ministry night, and we're looking forward to seeing you there.