What To Do With Your Trash
Jan McDonald
Fun Leadership Development Trainer, Executive and Mindset Coach, Keynote Speaker, Certified DISC Consultant, Spiritual Retreat Leader, OMWBE Certified
"I kicked that garbage to the curb a long time ago." Ben (my son)
That is what my son said to me some years ago when I was making amends to him for my life under the influence of alcohol and drugs. As far as he was concerned, that was in the past and I wasn't that same person anymore.
Oh, that we would speak those same words to ourselves when our head trash kicks in.
Friday is garbage day here and as I was working in my office, I heard them haul our trash away. I'll never see that trash again.
The trash people are not going to come back and knock on my door and say, "Mrs. McDonald, we love taking your trash away. We thought you might be missing it, so we brought it back and spread it out all over your lawn in a nice arrangement. We're pretty sure it's all yours, but there might be some other people's stuff in there, too."
We do that with our head trash, don't we...or is it just me? We allow garbage thoughts to arise in our minds and we actually entertain them. When we bring up our past, we relive it and all of its corresponding emotions. If the experience was good, it can be a joyous memory. If it was bad, unless we rewrite it, we get to live that event, and everything attached to it, all over again. Caroline Leaf, the neuroscientist, says that process locks those memories in our minds even deeper.
There could also be stories that we've told ourselves about others, or erroneous meanings that we have added to events or circumstances, that have happened in our lives. (see last weeks post https://www.jan-mcdonald.com/blog/we-see-through-our-own-filters.)
If you are a Christian, you are a new creation:
1 Corinthians 5:17 Now if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become and entirely new person. All that is related to the old order is gone.
Colossians 1:22 tells us that God sees us as holy, blameless, and above reproach...flawless.
Micah 7:19 says this about God, "He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea."
When God looks at us, He sees the new creation that Jesus created by the finished work of the cross. He doesn't see our life trash because it's gone.
Our past no longer defines us. YIPPEE!
When your head trash kicks in again, you know what to do. Take those junkie thoughts captive and march them right to the curb. Replace those trashy mental roadblocks with a great thought! You are not the person of your past! Period.
And if you need help with this, or with a rewrite of some negative memories, I'm just an email away,
Jan McDonald