Tenacity

This, to my remembrance, was my first experience to drive a huge bulldozer. My Dad owned and operated heavy equipment as I was growing up, but this was my first time to climb on a bulldozer and fire it up.

I wish you could see the terrain behind the bulldozer in this picture before, and now after. Once, huge piles of rubble, not so good trees that had taken root and a lot of plain ol' trash made this site, unsightly! And on top of that, it was a place where I had frequently camped.

As the wife of a Home Missions Pastor/Evangelist/and now, a husband struck with MS and disabled, I always gave credit for my survival to my awesome God. But I also forced myself to think right and visualize what I wanted. I will tell you that in spite of all of my trying, I became buried, with the feeling of going down a swift drain and grasping for whatever I could as I went down, before completely going under.

The lack of money or the absence of an income can be totally devastating. Money is a subject we do not like to talk about, but without a doubt, money controls every part of your life or so we think.

I decided I needed a whole fresh attitude about money. Being reduced to a "poor man", "poor me" attitude, I knew it would keep me captive to my past. Searching for answers, this is what I found:

We have a concious mind and a subconcious mind. You will find in every success book or motivational speech that there is power in your thinking and in the words of your mouth. This is all straight out of God's Word. Books like "Hung by the Tongue" and "Think and Grow Rich" are some of very many books written about the subject.

Our minds are hit dead center every day by what is REALITY. This can be a mountain of impossibilties to overcome. The truth is, although your situation does not change, YOU can change. By feeding your mind, and ultimately your subconcious mind that motors your attitudes, emotions and actions, mountains can begin to move.

Affirmation is key!! You MUST begin to AFFIRM what you want! Concious controlled thinking can be visualized like this: Picture a very gentle steady rain falling softly on a rock. Though oh so gentle, over time the rock begins to change. Change is inevitable. When we begin to affirm what we want, write it and speak it, gradually in time it gets accepted as truth and affects the actions and behavior of the person involved.

The accumulated power of the repeated affirmation pushes and drives out the subconcious mind's thoughts, attitudes and habits that are not in harmony with the affirmations, and changes the contents of the subconscious mind from negative and restrictive thoughts, to positive and constructive ones.

Here is what "I" did:

First, I wrote down every dilemma I possessed. These were thoughts that I DAILY had to ward off. Think you don't have any? I challenge you to do this. I listed 26 of them! Though I fought to ignore them, there was a reality that "these" thoughts constantly bombarded my thinking.

Next, I took each one and turned it around into what I wanted. I ended up with 35 affirmations, I got so carried away!

Here is an example: "We are too old to get jobs." Replaced with: "Our age and accumulated wisdom brings unique opportunities for us to make money and minister in fulfilling ways."

See the difference?

Once all said and done, I jumped on this huge bulldozer like a raging maniac with more tenacity than you would ever see in a WOMAN, and turned it around to my back and began to plow up my past. It did not take me long. This dozer was so huge that in just a short time, it was flattened and buried! It is not even there any more! There are still mountains ahead and always will be but I know that from where I have come to where I am now, I have the strength to climb.

I refuse to go back there and camp or even visit! Everyday, I reaffirm what I want instead of rehearsing WHY I can not get to where I want to go.

The first day was amazing. I had to get out my favorite journal and begin to write down all of the amazing events that came in just the first day!

Now...God said it and I believe it. There is nothing more powerful than His Word in our lives:

"Let the words of my heart and the mediations of my mind be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord."

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Don't be a victim of your past. Bury your past and renew your mind with what "HE" thinks.