¶ Welcome to Starting Right
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac . I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day . So grab your cup of coffee , sit back , relax and let me help you start your day right . I'm going to tell you I am so glad that I have God in my life .
He is such a good God and I'm so glad that he loves and accepts me despite all of my weaknesses . Yes , god is good to us all of us and as Christians , god also works in our lives to help us learn to do and be what is the very best for us
¶ God's Goodness and Our Responsibility
and for Him . We sometimes forget that two parts of the relationship . We always remember what God says about what he wants to do , the good things that he wants to put into our lives , but we sometimes forget about the fact that we are responsible as well to change our lives .
We are to , as the scripture says , renew our minds to change our thinking , but we're also to develop some discipline into our lives . So we are to , as the scripture says , renew our minds to change our thinking , but we're also to develop some discipline into our lives so that we can live as God wants us to Over .
In 2 Timothy , chapter 1 , verse 7 , it says God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity , but of power , love and self-discipline . If you look over in the fruit of spirit , in Galatians , chapter 5 , it talks about self-control . Self-control is self-discipline , and sometimes we think that it's God's job to make us self-disciplined when in reality it's not .
It's our job . It's our job to learn how to discipline our minds and our lives and our actions so that God can work in us .
¶ Catherine Marshall's Criticism Fast
I came across a story from Catherine Marshall that tells us about this . You see , she had a problem common to most of us . She found it was way too easy to be critical of others . Well , one morning , as she meditated on Romans 14 , verse 13 , the Living Bible says don't criticize each other anymore .
Well , catherine became aware of the Lord nudging her not to be critical for one day . Of course , she tried to shove it off , but she couldn't get it out of her mind . So she tried to rationalize her critical attitude . After all , aren't we to use the intelligence God gave us to analyze and evaluate , even though the result is not always positive ?
But still , this nudging continued right through the debate , going on within her mind until she finally agreed to give the experiment a try , but just for one day . She would fast from criticism . For most of the morning she kept wondering what the result would be .
At the end of the day , the lunch with her husband and friends was normal , except for the unusual silence of one person , catherine . She had not committed to silence , just to not criticizing . It surprised her to realize how much of her conversation was usually critical and judgmental .
She was silent only because she couldn't contribute to the conversation without judging , so she kept quiet and no one seemed to notice . It was a sting to her pride as well . It wasn't until mid-afternoon that something special began to happen .
The floodgate of ideas began to open and creative thoughts flowed through in a way that she hadn't experienced in a long time . At the end of the day she marveled at all that had transpired simply because she refused to entertain a critical attitude .
Insight into praying for a college student seeking her child's forgiveness , all filtered through her freely , because there were no negative thoughts to stop them . Catherine's one-day experiment became a lifetime habit Self-discipline , learning to control our thoughts , our minds , particularly the negative aspects of that .
¶ Making Room for God's Positive Power
When we get control of the negative , it makes room for God's positive power and influence to work in our lives . God wants us to stay on the positive side of life and he wants us to have a life full of joy and positive impact to the people around us .
Everybody has a negative habit , but we also have the ability to choose not to let that habit rule and run in our lives . So I encourage you , just like Catherine did , try for one day just to not be critical or to get angry , or to shout at the kids or to whatever your negative habit is .
Be disciplined within yourself , to let God begin to speak to you on the positive side of your negative actions . God will bless you and it may surprise you what you learn at the end of the day . Have a great day , my friends . We will
¶ Challenge and Closing Thoughts
talk again tomorrow . Thank you for joining us today and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday , right here at Starting Right , with Danny Mac .