“Do you pray for your child to change and then entertain all kinds of negative thoughts about him?” This sentence jumped out at me as I was reading a book by Joyce Meyer called Battlefield of the Mind.
Meyer is one of those down-to-earth TV and radio ministers. I enjoy listening to her preach and reading her books. She’s one of those preachers who you know are just not in it for the money. Anyway, the book talks about how our mind and thoughts can help or hinder us. In the section where I read the above sentence she was speaking about how we need to have an exhortive mind.
Although I do praise Tyler often, I realize that sometimes I also entertain negative thoughts about his behavior. I do pray and ask God for guidance but then I often think negatively. For instance, if I want to go somewhere and I need to take him with me I will think about how he misbehaved the last time I took him somewhere and I end up either not going or going with the idea that he’s going to act up. With these negative thoughts in mind, the least thing he does might get me to thinking, “See, I knew he was going to act up.” I have found that his father is the complete opposite. He never assumes that Tyler is going to misbehave. He just goes on and does whatever, takes him wherever and never worries. If Tyler misbehaves he handles it at the time and then it’s forgotten.
Another thing we do, according to Meyer, is we pray for change and then say negative things about our kids to others. For instance, if someone asks how your child is doing you might say, “This child will never change, I don’t know what I’m going to do with him.”
Meyer suggests that we line up our thought and words with what we have prayed for and if we do we will see a change. If our kids have been giving us problems and no change is evident we still have to talk about it in positive words. We can say that we haven’t seen a breakthrough yet, but we are sure that soon, little by little and day by day, we will eventually see the change we prayed for.
If you find yourself leaning more toward being a Negative Nellie, change your thoughts and become a Positive Polly instead.
See also:
Your Prayers Can Affect Reality