Tools for Effective Living

Your thoughts create your world – “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” – This statement not only embraces the whole of your being, but it is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of your life. Your desires rest in your heart – what you speak “from the heart” is what you want to happen. When you look in the mirror, you see your image, a reflection of what is there and by seeing what is there, you can correct what’s not in place. Similarly, your life reflects what you have put your attention on using your thoughts and words. Your thoughts impact and portray the image you have of yourself, projecting that image into your world or environment. What you put your focus on, whether it is a thought or a spoken word, is what is created in your physical world. You do not realize your thoughts, which become verbal expressions and manifestations - words - that have power. Ideas begin as thoughts, thoughts become words. Once “a thing” is given “a name” it has even more power. The more you speak “the name” the more power you give “the thing.” This in turn allows it to manifest more quickly into the seen world. In the Book of Genesis, God gave Adam the assignment to name every living creation God made appear on the earth. Whether you believe this story or not, it depicts the power we have by giving “names” to our creations, just as God gave Adam. Through your belief, you know that when you name something it is going to be exactly what you have named it – a song you have composed, a child you have birthed, a book you have penned, or an art piece you have painted. Thoughts take expressions as the spoken word. Words are creative energy, alive and moving; once you name something it has power. Every word you speak holds power – no matter how minuscule you think is it. “There is in the formed conscious man, a point of concentration for this word.” You want your words to be living words, words of life for prosperous creation. Words have the power to restore and make whole. And words have the power to tear down and destroy. Think of thoughts as seeds planted from the heart. The fruit is the desire of the heart manifested or harvested – what is reaped. What are you planting through your thoughts and words? This is a story that I asked a very close cousin to share concerning her life changing experience as a result of her thoughts and words. “Yes, I will recount those moments and why I truly believe in the power of the tongue and the importance of being careful of what you speak out of your mouth, for you just might “will” it into your life. One of my best friends and I were just sitting around one afternoon talking about life in general when she said, “oh, I’ll probably get cancer and die.” My remark in reply was, “I’ll probably get something that they don’t have a cure for.” We were both in our 20’s and not thinking much about it. This is sort of painful because I still remember it so clearly. Years went by and by the time I was in my 30’s I became real sick and went to the hospital. First, they couldn’t find anything. But there was a young new doctor who continued to do tests and finally figured out, from the results, that I had Lupus, which was fairly new to the medical field. He said, “I have some good news and bad news for you.” Bad news is you have Lupus – the good news is you can live with it, but there is no cure for it.” As always your mind begins to entertain negative thoughts, but I had faith and I knew God would bring me through it. After my episode, my best friend was doing a self-examination when she found a lump in her breast. She went to see about it and found out that she had breast cancer. She went through all of the treatments, but at the early age of 35 she passed away. With this personal experience, I unequivocally believe in being careful of what you speak. I have learned the power of words and am living more consciously aware of what I say and think.” Another young woman I know admired the parenting and what she perceived as wife skills of her much loved Aunt and said she wanted to be like her. She married, had children and began emulating the wonderful parenting skills of her Aunt with her family. Later in life she came to the conclusion that she no longer wanted the life she had built, deciding to choose another way of living. She more than likely forgot what she said and desired earlier in her life, which brought her to this now unwanted lifestyle. She is still learning, but coming into her own through this great learning experience. For the most part, no one remembers or is conscious of the many factors that go into making the choices we make. Many of us are like these two women, but not realizing the power of our thoughts and words; find ourselves in difficult and unwanted learning situations. What you see reflecting back at you as your life is the result of what you have planted and is now harvesting. It is easy to blame someone else for what you imagine is seemingly happening, because then you do not have to really look at yourself. The responsibility however is yours, and yours alone, to change, making as the saying goes, “lemonade out of lemons,” not build a home in your thinking and mentality out of what happened in the past holding on to the victim mentality. Either make the tree sound (healthy and good), and its fruit sound (healthy and good), or make the tree rotten (diseased and bad), and its fruit rotten (diseased and bad); for the tree is known and recognized and judged by its fruit. ... For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man from his inner good treasure flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things. But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak. For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced. Matthew 12:33-37 You go through life not paying much attention to your thoughts, but they are so extremely powerful. Because then they become your words. Your words can be a two-edged sword that either builds life or takes life away. The Divine wants you to realize that even your so called negative thoughts are things that will be granted. The Creator, a Pure Essence, gives you whatever you desire. What you strongly desire, ask for and focus your attention on, you most often will receive either immediately or in the future. The Divine Spirit is so pure that “good and bad” really do not exist – those are human terms. To Pure Spirit, your energy is either vibrating at the harmonious level of divine love or it is vibrating discordantly at an inharmonious level of consciousness. There is no judgment to your desire.