It IS a war, you know? There really is a battlefield of the mind.

If you are on my daily encouragement email list, then you know that a few days back I shared with you how I’ve been acting irritable and defensive – and how my wife has been calling me on it (she’s good at that, in a good way).

At the end of that email, I told you what I was going to do to try and address the issue and that I’d give you an update.

This is that. 🙂

I finally got a new journal and wrote the following statement – a full page of it – on the first day.

Almighty God has made me a humble, kind, patient, curious, secure, pure, intentional, dependent, approachable man of God.

Each of those traits is deliberately chosen. They are positive reminders of WHO God has made me to be that are specific to the battle I face personally.

If you were to make a list for yourself, it would no doubt be different. It SHOULD be different.

Anyway, it reminded me of the punishment teachers would give in elementary school – having a student write out something on the chalkboard 100 times, “I will NOT call Suzy a cootie-factory…”

But it struck me as WAY more important than that – way more POSITIVE.

In writing out that sentence I’m declaring the truth about myself, what God says is true of me. I’m aggressively stepping into the battlefield of the mind.

From what I understand about the way the brain works in conjunction with the mind, focused attention like that, repeated over time, DOES soak in (for lack of a better term) and slowly begins to change beliefs and therefore the actions that flow from them.

I’m only 3 days into it at this point… but am optimistic about what can come of this new practice/habit/discipline thing.

And to be clear – I don’t see this as some kind of “Life hack” or trick.

I see it as a way to make use of the way God has designed me – body, soul, and spirit – to maximize my growth.

And in case it’s not clear, I feel I should also point out that behind this effort is a belief – GROWTH IS INTENTIONAL – at least the kind of growth I’m talking about here (beating a bad habit/response).

We are told to “put to death the deeds of the flesh” (Romans 10:13). That sounds pretty intentional to me.

The battlefield of the mind is real.

So… I’ll update you more as I get deeper into this thing – but would like to hear your thoughts about what I’ve done so far.

Does it sound helpful? Why or why not?

Is it something you’d be willing to try? If so, I’d love to hear about your experience.