God can change you when you don't even like you
A story about the story: I wrote this article last week for Help Club for Moms, which is why it sounds a little more generic (appropriate?) than most of my other personal stories. BUT I wanted to share it with you here and tell you this one frenzied moment I begin with - and the way God met me in it - has intrinsically changed me. Forever. I think I said the same thing to Chris every night when we got into bed last week: “I’m becoming different from that one moment. I think God is doing something in me.” Isn’t He good?
So, as you read today, I want you to take heart that God can change everything about you in the moments when you don’t even like you.
This morning I made breakfast and packed lunches while tidying up, responding to messages, and cleaning out a closet – all with the ear-splitting soundtrack of my dogs barking, teenager chattering, toddler tantruming, and my husband asking me what exactly the problem was this morning. Finally on the road to school drop-offs, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other squeezing my little one’s hand in the backseat, I had a moment to think. Friends, my thoughts were not good. Infamous “mom guilt” snuck in, and I slipped into a too-familiar pattern. “I don’t know what to do with my toddler. I don’t know how to stay calm in the middle of the storm.” And, “I hope my teen doesn’t feel alone or neglected. Is he lonely because I’m so busy with the little one?”
God’s Spirit quietly reminded me, “You have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). He squeezed my heart while I squeezed a little hand. His gentle presence encouraged me to turn off the harsh path I was spiraling down. I began to pray aloud to silence my thoughts. Instead of praying into my fear, and saying things like, “Please don’t let my teenager feel rejected, God…” I prayed, “Your Spirit is more than enough to sustain my teen. I give glory to the God who loves my teen better than me and the Holy Spirit that can fill every gap his family, friends or the world may leave. You are his source and supply.” It felt like a road of hope opened before me where there had not been one. The Lord does that for us.
“This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:16,18,19).
Wherever we set our minds shapes who we are. Neuroscience has proven that our thoughts build pathways in our brains. Even the most fleeting thoughts go down a pathway toward the proteins that shape our DNA and core belief systems. (Read “Switch on Your Brain” by Dr. Caroline Leaf to learn more.) If you continuously think, “I’m not a good mom,” that pathway becomes the road most traveled. Before you know it, it’s a slippery slope your mind and identity default to.
The most amazing thing about this scientific discovery is it’s proving Scripture true! Romans 12:2 tells us our minds can be renewed. MRIs and genetic testing have shown we can replace our negative thoughts with positive ones, and the pathways and condition of our brains will be physically transformed.
The Word of God empowers us with a life-shaping truth: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
You can take your thoughts captive the same way I did in the car this morning. If your mindset is tinged with even a hint of fear, shame or guilt, you can guarantee that it’s not from God (1 John 4:18, Romans 8:1)! Stop the thought in its tracks, and “make it obedient to Christ” by asking God what He thinks about your circumstance. If He can make a dry path through an ocean floor, He can make a way for you to replace lies with truth in your darkest moments.
““Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
