Playing Mind Games

Timothy Fuller once said, “Life is just a series of trying to make up your mind.”  

On so many occasions, it is difficult just to make a decision and then disregard the consequences that come along with it. We often blame our mind games on anyone other than who really is the guilty party. The only one playing mind games with us is…us.

(Bel Air Split)
(Bel Air, MD)

Surmising things that aren’t really there can give birth to ideas that lead us to places we need not have gone. Bitterness, regret, and indecisiveness can plague us if we allow these games to have a playground in our heads.

The problem I so often have is whenever I try NOT to think about something, it gets trapped in my mind. Dan Wegner, a Harvard psychologist said, “The mind appears to search, unconsciously and automatically, for whatever thought, action, or emotion the person is trying to control. … This ironic monitoring process can actually create the mental contents for which it is searching.” 

(Loch Raven Road)
(Baltimore, MD)

If we battle with any negative idea or occurrence in our personal lives, the battle to control these things in our minds become immeasurably more difficult when we say we are not going to think about them. This is where I have come to grips with the importance of not comparing ourselves to anyone else. Scripture simply says that if you do this, then “you are not wise.”

(Aliceanna Street)
(Inner Harbor - Baltimore, MD)

If we begin comparing ourselves to others, then in our minds we think:
* We will never be good enough.
* We can never have a marriage like them.
* My creativity will never measure up.
* I will never be able to overcome this habit.

Or on the flip side:
* I’m so much more capable than them.
* No one else can do it like me.
* I’m better than...

Arrogance begins to set in.

Stop surmising that you have it all together because…you don’t.
Stop believing that others are better than you because…they’re not.

The enemy is not greater than your God. And God has not given you a spirit of fear…but of power, love, and a sound mind. The mind games going on in our heads is not the enemy’s fault…we are doing it to ourselves. God help us to have a clear mind, a pure heart, and an unbridled passion so that His purpose can be complete in us.  

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