Quote to Ponder

"If you can’t control what you think, you will not be able to control what you do."
--Joyce Meyer, today on Facebook

I like this. I don't think there's a person alive who doesn't struggle with this at some point in time or with some area or another. It's not easy to "control" what you think all of the time. Especially when you're mentally, physically, and emotionally tried and/or exhausted. Or when it just feels like you're in the midst of a seemingly everlasting spiritual battle. It's not easy.

But what I'm finding to be true--and what I'm still in the process of learning--is how to control everyday thoughts. For me, it's the negative thoughts that tend to try to get into my mind and spirit. They tend to do the most damage and are the most difficult to expel.

When they come, these negative attacks of thought, I don't always feel prepared to deal with them. But I know that I must "take control," as Joyce Meyer says here. I must learn how to "swat them away" before they can do major damage.

As I have thought about this, a very strong visual image came to mind.

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One visual image that comes to mind is of a tennis player holding a racket, swinging when the tennis ball gets sent over the net.

Sometimes, the tennis ball gets lobbed over by someone who is not bent on knocking you to the ground. It's almost a "non-threatening" lob over. And, usually, it's those tennis ball returns that we make that can help us learn how to return the ball, how to practice. We can learn how to hit back, how to aim. During this time, we can improve our posture, our stance, altering the way we hold the racket, even, if necessary, so we learn to be more effective.

We can't get better until we learn to work on this level. We can't be properly prepared for a real match, a tough match, a competitive match, until we've tweaked these things at the lower level.

Because, without this experience, we'd be out-matched and in over our heads in an instant in a real, gritty match.

I suppose there are those action-hungry people out there who think the "casual lob-over" too simplistic for them. I suppose they just stand there and watch (or not) as the tennis ball hits nearer and nearer them and they fail to respond...because it's just not interesting enough, important enough, critical enough.

But there will be times when that tennis ball comes over at an alarming rate--with intent to harm, so to speak. And sometimes that tennis ball can come over and whack you hard--whether you were ready or not, expecting or not--leaving a welt that you deal with for some time, for days, even. You may take it personally, get the sense that the person sending it over is intent in knocking you down.

He is.

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We must get to the point where we realize that everyday life is a potential training ground for what's to come. We can not afford to waste this valuable time by standing idly by, enjoying the "lazy days" we seem blessed by.

We must be preparing, each day, for the inevitable match to come.

And we must understand that no match is easily won. There will be sacrifice, pain, and a real effort made...or we will never experience true victory.