Have you ever said something to another person and they took
what you said completely different than how you meant it? I think we all have
experienced this in some way or another. It is amazing how you can say
something and the meaning of it can completely change because it was taken out
of context. This happened to me about a week ago when my
husband was away at church camp and I had our high school youth group over to
our house for our weekly meeting. We had a good meeting and some of the kids
hung out afterwards until about 9PM, which was awesome. I told Paul about how the
meeting went later that night and that some of the kids stayed late, he thought
it was great. I was sharing with someone else about the evening and when I said
that the kids stayed afterward to hang out, the response was “you probably
thought they were never going to leave”.
I said, “no, I was surprised that they wanted to stay that late and it
was a great night”. Later in the conversation
there was another comment about how I probably wanted them to leave and I had
to correct it again. After the interaction I started thinking about how people
can hear what your saying and come up with a completely different conclusion.
We all have our past experiences from growing up and those
experiences shape who we are. They are still locked away in the chambers of our
memory and they will stay with us forever. Those same experiences will shape
the way we perceive everything that is going on around us. So, when one person
looks at the bright side of a situation, you will have another person who looks
at the bleak side of the same situation. We filter all that is going on around
us through the lens of our experiences and this is what shapes our attitudes
about what goes on in our lives. Think about it, if someone was raised in an environment
where there were hostile confrontations on a regular basis, then they may grow
up thinking that any discussion is handled with hostility. They will play out the
entire conversation in their head prior to and more than likely, it will come
to pass just as they imagined it.
Proverbs 4:20-23 My son, give attention to my
words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes;
keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them,
and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of
it spring the issues of life.
This scripture tells us that the issues of life come from
the heart and I believe that I have been describing an example of what it is
referring to. If we keep our focus on what has happened in the past and keep
repeating it, then all we are going to have is the same results. If we renew
our mind and focus on what God’s word says about us and what He wants for us,
then we will probably have different results in our lives. Many times, we blame
circumstances for the outcomes that we have in our lives when we should really
be looking at where our focus is. We have a choice when it comes to our
response to any given situation and that choice will decide the outcome. You
may be struggling in some area of your life right now and the best thing you
can do is keep track of your thoughts in that area. Are you having a repetitive
response to a situation that may be on auto pilot? It would definitely be worth
it to dig in and find out where your mind goes when the situation comes up and
maybe it is time to redirect those thoughts. I know that I have done this in
many areas of my life and it has really changed my outlook and the outcome of
many situations. Our mind directs us through this life, so it is worth the time
to evaluate what is going on up there. It has helped me, also it has shed some
light on how others may be thinking about things. Just a thought.
