Thoughts can change your life

 Thoughts can change your life

In the 1960s my aunt who is my fathers sister was married to a man who wrote a book called “your thoughts can change your life". This is a true statement by the way. I was grateful as a child and young adult to understand that truly your thoughts can and do change your life. However, understanding how they change your life is equally important as to knowing how your thoughts change your life. For example when people think in a Christian science type way often and they make the mistake of thinking," god is going to save me no matter what". So though this is a subtle mistake this is a mistake I observed in my childhood over and over again as people died thinking that god was going to save them and that all he had to do was it just sit there and wait for God to save them.

It reminds me of a joke I heard around that time also. Here's the joke but it's actually from another era than this one now.

A man was on the roof of his barn and realized that if he wasn't rescued he would drown and die because there was a flood going by about 10 feet high and very swiftly. So he called out to God and said "god save me. I know you will save me." Because of course this was a very religious man. But maybe a different kind of religious man then you will see today because this would be more like someone in the 1940s or 1950s who is religious which is a different kind of man than today. He was more absolutist and is thinking and less relativist.

So God sent him a man on a raft but The man on the roof of the barn said to the man on the raft “oh I don't need a ride because God is going to save me.”

Next, god sent the man a man in A rowboat and the man on the roof said “I'm okay because God is going to save me.”

Next, god sent the man people in a powerboat and once again the man on the roof said" I'm okay God is going to save me.”

Next the helicopter came and the man came down on the rope and said “get on here we need to save your life!”

once again the man on the roof said,"No. God is going to save me!"

So in the end the man on the roof drowned and after he drowned he went before God and he said to God" god why didn't you save me?”

And God said" I sent you the raft, the rowboat, the power boat, And the helicopter. Why didn't you save yourself on one of these?”

Now, this might not translate into this era  very well but I knew people who were just like this and they were so impractical that They literally did not take the raft, the rowboat, the power boat, Or the helicopter, and I watched them die which was horrific for a child to have to see.

But, What was good about this for me was that I learned how God operates in actuality and not just in theory.

Because of this I didn't have to die because when God sent me oftentimes a raft as an adult, I knew to take that metaphorical raft because if I didn't  I might die.
But oftentimes people are impractical and never learned this and so they die expecting God to create some magic miracle that isn't just practical in the end.

So remember this, whether you believe in God or not, your thoughts do  change your life, and how  you think Will often decide whether you live or die in any given moment.