Life Change: How God Redirects and Fills Us With Health
Today I’m excited to feature Jennifer Slattery, a writer, editor, and speaker, as a guest-blogger on my Shining the Light blog. Jennifer is the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries, of which I am blessed to be a part. Read more about Jennifer and connect with her online, below.
By Jennifer Slattery
Our choices today will either add to our strength and health, or lead to disease and decay. If only right thinking came naturally, then we could continue quite casually, leaving our hearts and minds—and thus, our lives and relationships—unprotected. But Scripture and experience shows, again and again, this inevitability leads to harm and pain, sometimes irreparably so.
When my daughter was young, I stayed home and often ached for adult conversation. She was an only child, and I worried she was lonely as well, so I began signing us up for low-cost activities and social clubs. I also spent little time filling my heart and mind with truth and checking my thoughts and encounters against those truths. This left my heart and thoughts unchecked and unprotected.
I became deeply engaged with one group in particular. We met numerous times each week, for outings and park days or to simply sit in one another’s homes. And regardless of how our discussions started, they almost always veered in one direction—to how hard life was and how terrible or inconsiderate everyone’s husband was.
I’d like to say I was able to listen without getting sucked into the toxic vortex. I wish I’d had the wisdom to lovingly steer the dialogue into healthier directions, but I didn’t. As undernourished and unprotected as I was, I always left frustrated with my life and marriage.
Then, one day, reality hit. I noticed I always left those interactions crabby and dissatisfied, not just with my life, but with my husband. This group, these “venting” women, were actually harming my marriage. I knew, if I wanted my marriage to grow and the health in our home to increase, I needed to be selective with my influences. I also needed to spend less time ruminating and thus giving voice to my faulty thinking, and more time filling my mind and heart with the unchanging, life-giving truths of Scripture.
Psalm 1 puts it this way:
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;” (verse 1)
…Who diligently avoids negative influences.
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night” (v. 2).
…She thinks deeply and seriously about Scripture.
When negative thinking arises, she consistently and persistently redirects her mind onto truth. She prayerfully contemplates how that truth speaks to her life, her behaviors, her perceptions, and her current situation, and she does this again and again until, one day, she realizes how drastically her thinking has changed.
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (v. 3).
As a result, she’s well-protected and well-nourished. The winds may blow, but her roots go deep, anchored in Christ. Drought may come, and a heat wave may beat upon her branches, but though these outward challenges are unpleasant, they won’t and can’t destroy her, because she is continually fed by the sweet, pure stream that will never run dry. Her fruitfulness isn’t dependent on her circumstances or outward influences but the strength, wisdom, and power of God’s Spirit welling up within.
“The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away” (v. 4).
Those ladies I initially spent so much time with? They’re all divorced now, and I can’t help but wonder, had I remained so deeply connected to them, if I would be so as well. Praise God, I’ll never know, because He dramatically rewrote my story. He led me to godly women whose discussions centered on how they could draw closer to Christ and live more rooted in Him. When I would share my frustrations, rather than agreeing with me, they challenged me to analyze my behavior, to ask God to purify my heart, and to seek hard after Him.
Day by day, interaction by interaction, those precious, holy women helped me change, and as I began to change, so did my marriage, and all my relationships, really. As my family and I prepare to celebrate our 23rd Slattery Christmas in a loving, peaceful and much healthier home, I am eternally grateful for those ladies who had the courage to call out sin, point me to truth, and gently yet persistently lead me, step by step, closer to life.
Jennifer Slattery is a writer, editor, speaker, and the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries. She writes for Crosswalk, is the author of eight contemporary novels, and helped write Wholly Loved’s Bible study based on the life of Sarai (Gen. 12-23) titled Becoming His Princess, as well as two recent devotionals, Drawing Near and Intentional Holidays. Visit Jennifer Slattery online at jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.
If you found this post helpful, be sure to join my email community:
Like this article? Share a link on social media: