It is quite amazing how much our childhood affects how we think in so many areas of our lives. I’m currently reading a book called, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. The author points out how our views towards money are affected by what our parents said about money and their example in how they managed it.
Our parents can also affect how we feel about ourselves. They can build us up or belittle us. This belittling leaves many of us feeling worthless, and even though we may become Christians and see our worth in the Father’s ultimate sacrifice of His son, we could still have a subconscious feeling of worthlessness.
Feeling worthless can affect how we care about our health. A certain apathy is developed where we participate in a health-destroying behavior, but we don’t care to stop the behavior.
Many people like to say their poor health is genetic when the problem is in the inherited weaknesses and the learned behaviour of poor health habits. This being the case, a diseased person is going to have to change the way he thinks. In the case of the book I am reading, a person needs to have a millionaire mind. In the case of a self-destructing diseased person, he is going to have to have a healthy person mind or think like a healthy person.
But, how can a diseased person think like a healthy person? First, he is going to need to realize that the body temple he lives in was bought by the blood of Christ, and it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is not a garbage dump. If he can just realize that one thing, that will start the motivation to change the way he thinks. Second, he will need to let this mind be in him, which was also in Christ Jesus. Third, he will need to submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from him. When we resist temptation, God gives the strength to overcome.
I had to make some decisions to change the way that I was thinking. I was raised to believe that eating meat was bad, but milk, cheese and a ton of sugar were OK to eat. After college, I started to think a little differently. At first, I thought that I could help my mother not make herself any fatter if I would eat up the chocolate eclairs she was buying. I finally realized that she was just going to buy more and why should I make myself fat to help her? I then decided that I would no longer eat sugar unless it was for special occasions like Birthdays and weddings. I went for about 2 weeks with no sugar and then there were more than enough Birthdays and weddings and I couldn’t help rewarding myself by eating more than one piece of cake. I finally decided that I wasn’t going to eat any more sugar.
I came to realize the way to think to keep from falling into the temptation to eat harmful foods. Fat people are always dieting and when they have done well for a time, they reward themselves with the coveted foods they have gone without for a short time. I began to see that this was like a couple that has come to the place where they can no longer live together because love has died and been replaced with hate. It would be so strange for them to get together every month for marital relations because they remember the good times they had together. What caused the divorce? It was bad times. If you want to change the way you think about unhealthy food, drink or the smoking habit, you will have to forget all the good times and focus on the bad. You will have to hate the old habit and decide that you don’t want to ever go back to it. You can’t reward yourself because you have avoided them for a while. If you want to have health, you need to say good-bye to bad habits forever. The trouble is that you want to divorce them, but you still love them. Think of them as you would an abusive husband. He would beat you up and then tell you he was sorry and loved you so much. Will you put up with his behavior until he kills you? The harmful foods, drink, and cigarettes are doing the same.
If you want to change the way you think, you will need to decide on the offending habit. Then, write down all the bad things it does to you. How is it abusive? For me, chocolate was so delicious, but it was causing me to break out. That was my motivation. It was just one thing and it was good riddance. Smoking has multiple things to hate such as it destroys the lungs, injures the heart and blood vessels, causes bad breath and puts holes in the clothes. It makes it so you can’t breathe like you are being choked by that abusive husband. It is time to change the way you think. Come to the place where you despise that abusive husband and you will never be tempted to go back.