guard your thoughts...

JESUS taught if you really want to have great communication, you have to build trust. you can’t have high quality communication without high level trust. it’s impossible.

back a number of years ago, after the last earthquake up in san francisco, a big number of the old victorian houses had there foundations destroyed by the earthquake. the house was fine but the foundation was destroyed. it was harder rebuilding the foundation than building it in the first place. to rebuild it, they had to lift the house, build the foundation under it, and then put the house back down. was it worth it? of course it was. it was a beautiful home that was saved.

some of you have some beautiful relationships that need to be saved but you’ve just got to lift it up, do some work underneath, rebuild that foundation of trust, and then set it back down. it’s going to take time. it’s going to be hard work. but it is worth it.

JESUS said that’s where great communication starts. you build trust and then you guard your thoughts.

that’s where it all begins. in matthew 12 and mark 7 there’s a couple of things about the way we think and how that results in what we say.

matthew 12.34 (ncv), the mouth speaks the things that are in the heart.

mark 7.15 (tlb), your souls aren’t harmed by what you eat but by what you think and say.

do you see the vicious circle? how what i say affects what i think, affects what i say, affects what i think… you start with angry words and those angry words result in a wounded soul. that wounded soul results in a bitter heart. and that bitter heart results in more angry words. you just can’t seem to get out of this vicious circle of “i’m angry, i’m wounded, i’m hurt so i say more angry words.” it goes round and around.

i heard a story of a vicious circle recently. there was a guy, an old man, jogging on a high school football track. the football players were playing in the middle, doing a practice, and he was jogging. they were doing wind sprints. he thought, “as long as those kids are doing wind sprints, i think i can jog.” so he keeps jogging and they keep doing wind sprints. jogging – wind sprints. finally he had to quit. he stopped. and when he stopped, they stopped. one of the kids walked up to him and said, “man, i’m glad you stopped. coach said as long as the old man keeps running, we had to keep running!”

that’s a vicious circle. and we’ve all been caught up with those vicious circles that happen with our words. i’m getting more angry because i’m speaking more and more angry.

just a thought from the front porch…