The mind of Christ...limitless ability to think and live beyond ourselves.

I decided a long time ago that if I would just try... I could learn to do just about anything.

I have proven this idea in songwriting. https://soundcloud.com/anastasiapothoven

 I have done it in gardening and landscaping. 

I have done it in woodworking, design, organization, leadership, plumbing, electrical jobs, and many other things.

So I sit here and this is one my mind.

What would happen if we, "as Christians"  apply this same mindset to relationships?

I often think we give up so easily on the ones who are "toxic."

Toxic, this word has become such a trigger word. 

 If all the Christians of the world decided to start thinking like the world tells us to think, then we would have 0 Christians actually being Christ like and most of them just being self centered.

It goes completely counter culture to stay connected to people who are difficult, who require extra love, to those who are in need, to those who are hurting, abused and forgotten.  You see the world tells us we the most important, we are the number one, we are the one's who matter and if the people around us don't get that we are the most important, then we will have to x them out.

Really?

No... Really.  

It takes a special kind of mindset, one that says I will not give up on you with the kind of love the Christ did not give up on me with.

It takes someone who will go the distance with us.

We do not have this strength on our own, but there is good news.

We have the mind of Christ, if we are Christians.  This means we have the ability to think and set our mind in a different direction than the one who does not have the mind of Christ.

How do you get this mindset?  You read the word of God and you learn from Christ, by his example what he taught and what he did.  You learn how to turn the other cheek.  You learn that when someone asks you to go one mile, you go with them 2.  You learn that if you love those who love you, what good does that do?  If you love those who hate you, then you are truly like Christ.

Don't get me wrong.  I want to run.  I want to hide my head in the sand and pretend no one can see my body sticking out of the ground.  I want to give up 9 times out of 10 and walk away from that friend who continues to speak unkindly about me to others.  I want to say "forget you" to the one who deliberately hurts me in order to get a reaction out of me.  This is the hard one for me.  As a survivor of child sexual molestation by the hand of my teacher, in my christian school that my parents started for me and my siblings to protect us...uggg... this one is hard for me to forgive and to love, but inside of me, there is a survivor that cries out YES I CAN, even in this.  

I have this ability that goes beyond reason.

I have this ability that goes beyond even myself.

I have the ability to do the supernatural.  I have the mind of Christ.

So... what then?

What will you do?

Will you allow yourself to believe the lie that you are first.  You are the most important person in the room?

What have you done recently to show the love of Christ to a world around you who is watching and waiting and hoping you fail at not being selfish.

No, we are not perfect, but we are trying to be different.

To think about ourselves less and to think about the needs of others more.