2016 has been filled with misfortunes and deaths. December alone has been brutal. 

We dwell so much on the negative, let us not forget to reflect on the good as well. The Bible even asks us to do this. Why? You begin to become what you think and reflect upon. Pretty soon, we fail to see any goodness in the land but this is so far from the truth. Although we witness many misfortunes and tragedies daily, the goodness of God is visible everywhere. If we didn’t believe that good exists, we would’ve given up a long time ago:

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

As we prepare for another year, let’s learn to gravitate to the positive and not the negative. Don’t even waste time responding to negative social media posts. It’s too consuming and draining. In fact, start a new challenge, the clean up challenge:

1. Go through your phone contacts of those people who only see negative in everything, then mark and avoid them. 
2. Go through the list of folks you follow on your social media accounts who have such negative views and opinions of others, then mark and avoid them. 

Romans 16:17
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

Take a moment and reflect on 2016. Write down all of the good experiences, fun times, things that made you smile when you would’ve cried and use those times as a memorial to build upon a new way of thinking.

Why think on these mentioned? Because these “things” are a reflection of who our Savior is. He is true. He is honest. He is lovely. He is the epitome of virtue and we praise His holy name. Ooh, that’s it right there! I bless your name this morning Jesus.

Our thoughts form the basis of our behavior.

“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Matthew‬ ‭15:18-19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

To lose weight, we must make a mental decision that we will change our habits which will then produce an outward physical change that can be seen. Our thoughts lead us to throw out the chips and cookies and then feed our bodies with foods with more nutritional value such as fruits and vegetables.

Just as we feed our physical bodies with good sources of vitamins and minerals, our minds must be fed with the highest sources of spiritual vitamins as well: F, H, and C:

Vitamin F: Faith
Vitamin H: Hope
Vitamin C: Charity (love)

1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.