Creating Generations of Bastards.

"From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8 CEB)
It's very easy to focus my thoughts and feelings on the negative in my life. When unfortunate circumstances arise, my mind usually focuses on what's wrong with the situation instead of concentrating on the preferred result.

What Paul says is that we should focus on the excellent, admirable, true, holy, just, pure, lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. What would that look like?

The way we're wired internally is that what we repeat becomes natural. When we focus our thoughts and energies on the negative, our brains rewire themselves and it becomes easier and easier to accept, to point out, and to focus on the negative. In fact, it becomes so easy and natural that we can hardly focus on the positive, admirable, lovely, or holy things in life. It’s like muscle memory for a guitar player. I've been playing the guitar for a few years and the muscles in my hand have memorized the strength they need, the position, and the shape for the chords or notes I play. This makes it much easier for me to focus on the music and not what my left hand is doing during each song.

Everything changes when we have a negative outlook on life. The way we view each day becomes tainted by our unnaturally-natural tendencies. No matter what happens we focus on the bad or the non-perfect nuances.

I'm a salesman for a local company. Assuming I only focus on the negative in life, let's say I make a sale one day. After the sale has been made I'll point out what I did wrong and how I could've made just a little more money from that customer. I'm not saying observing my actions for ways to improve is bad, but I can't do that every time constantly abusing myself for not being perfect. If I were to constantly beat myself up for every negative thing in life, I'd walk around constantly depressed. I would also never grow or move forward in life. Why? Because I can't focus on the positive and move forward. If I always focus on the negative, I’ll remain stagnant.

I believe that's why Paul said to focus on the positive in life. Because he understands the importance of having positive, happy, encouraged, and lovely people in the church.
People don't come to the church so they can feel bad about themselves. People come to the church to find acceptance, love, peace, friendship, family, and to not be judged.

If we constantly hold people back within the church and prevent them from growing and moving forward in their lives because we constantly remind them they're sinners with a dark past, we'll create generations of paralyzed bastards within the church.
Yet, if we focus on the positive in peoples lives, if we point out what people do well and encourage them to move from their past mistakes and walk into the freedom of their destiny in Jesus, we'll create generations of fathered Christians ready and willing to accept the call of God on their lives and change their world.

Where do you place the focus of your thoughts and attention? Do you constantly see the negative in the world or do you see the positive and lovely in life? Do you focus on God’s Word and His holiness?