Insights
Stability and Peace With God
The cyclical nature of fashion is always fascinating. As a child of the 90’s and early 00’s, it’s equal parts terrifying and hilarious, but definitely fascinating. Big, baggy jeans? Sure, why not? Neon everything? Bring it on! Doc Martens sandals, studded belts, and other things that populated the halls of my middle school? They’re back! And if my timeline is accurate, frosted tips and popped collars are coming. Brace yourselves. But that’s the nature of fads: they pop up, burn way too brightly, and then fade away. They’re ephemeral, inconsistent, and not really founded on anything solid or stable.
When we base our actions and thoughts on something that shifts, we inevitably spend more time uncertain about our identity and stressed out about keeping up with the trends than we spend actually enjoying those trends. It’s the reason dieting fads pop up and flame out, why music has one-hit wonders, and why no one can tell you what the number 1 movie was a year ago without Googling it. (I won’t ruin the surprise for you, but after looking it up myself, I forgot the movie even existed.)
If we base our happiness, our contentment, and our peace on these things, it’s no wonder we spend our time unhappy, discontent, and lacking peace. This is why the prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 26:3-4 that “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” God is a rock–He never shifts, never changes, never wavers. When we seek Him and keep our minds on Him, we find a source of stability that no fad or trend will ever deliver.
As we head into November and the holiday season, there will inevitably be a riot of emotions and experiences for all of us. My hope and prayer is that we are all able to find the peace that comes from trusting in God and use that to center ourselves, come what may. The Lord God is an everlasting rock…1 Samuel 2:2 tells us “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.” May we all have peace knowing there is none like our God and that He is our stronghold!
Dr. Jason Henderson
Secondary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
Self-talk and Mental Health
Self-talk and Mental Health
In the book The Confident Mind, Dr. Nate Zinsser, the director of the Performance Psychology Program at West Point, talks about the importance of what we say to ourselves. He works with their cadets and athletes and stresses that an athlete’s self-talk determines his resilience and performance. What you say to yourself matters!
Self-talk is the inner dialogue you have with yourself. It is the inner whisper. What do you say to yourself? Do you say, “I better not mess this up.” or “I am not a good speaker and I can’t give a speech.” “I have such anxiety!” By listening to the inner negative dialogue, you create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your brain can’t distinguish between the inner dialogue and the received communication from others. Don’t be your own worst enemy. First, take inventory of your inner dialogue. Then Zinsser recommends replacing it with a present, powerful, precise, and positive thinking statement. An example, instead of saying, "I am not good at organizing”, you would say, “I organize myself so that I use my time wisely”. I like to replace my negative self-talk with scripture and to align my thoughts with the mind of Christ through prayer. I see it as aligning with how God sees me and believing in what God can do through me.
Physical Benefits of Positive Self-Talk
The benefits of positive self-talk are improved mental health and resilience. Scientists have even correlated positive self-talk to neuroplasticity of the brain. “When you think happy or optimistic thoughts, the brain produces serotonin, creating a feeling of calm, focus, and well-being. Positive emotions such as joy can also activate the prefrontal cortex, reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and make it easier to reflect and become aware of your thought processes. Research has shown that this activation may stimulate creative thinking, problem-solving, and mental productivity. Conversely, when you experience negative thoughts, it may hinder creativity, impede problem-solving, and slow down thought processing.”(Penn LPS, 2023)
Active ways that you can have better self-talk
Meditate on God’s word
Keep a gratitude journal
Recite affirmations or mantras.
Zinsser recommends creating affirmations that turn the negative thoughts to positive ones.
Imagine how powerful reciting positive self-talk and truth can be while we seek excellence in the story God is writing. God is writing an excellent story!
Leah Rabb
Elementary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
Speak God's Truth To Your Thoughts
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just (fair), whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable (praiseworthy), if there is any excellence, if there is any good report, think about these things.
The above scripture is what the Brooks Street students are memorizing this year as part of our proclamation about excellence. It has been a tough one to memorize even with all my crazy motions. It makes you think hard to get all those aforementioned attributes in the right order. Sometimes I find that it's also a difficult daily struggle to get my thoughts under control to focus on what the Lord wants me to instead of the wild swirl of fears, anxious thoughts and the cares of this world that seem to so easily invade my mind. So just like I do when I am teaching the proclamation to the students, I endeavor to reorder my thoughts and retrain my brain to think on the Lord and His Word. I tell my thoughts what to think.
It is hard as parents, in this fallen, depraved world, not to let our imaginations run wild with all the possible thought patterns that often have a devastating effect on our nervous system, our relationships and our mental health. We must realign our thoughts to the Word and just like it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” If you have been around me for any length of time you have probably heard me pray my super elaborate, highly theological prayer of, “Help me, Lord, thank you, Lord, help me, Lord, thank you, Lord….”. When my anxious thoughts are yelling louder than my excellent thoughts, that is the prayer I pray. Whispering a prayer inviting the Lord into your thought struggle can have a glorious impact on your attitude struggle.
Speak to your thoughts. Tell your doubts about your faith in God, tell your fears about the peace of God, tell your covetous heart about gratitude that brings contentment, and tell your perfectionism about excellence. We don’t have to let a negative thought life control how we "live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). So much of our spiritual battle takes place in our minds. We must remember Ephesians 6:12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Write scriptures on postcards and put them on your mirror, refrigerator or dash board, in your car, or set it as the background on your phone. Set reminders in your environment that trigger your brian to focus on scripture and win the battle in your mind and it will then move to your heart and spill out on to your attitude and positively affect your relationship with the Lord and those around you.
Today, hear the Lord as He calls you His beloved and draws you and your thoughts into His peace, causing your mind, body and soul to find love and contentment made possible through keeping your thoughts stayed on Him.
Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Becky Ross
Primary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
Our Thoughts and Our Perspectives
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things…” Colossians 1:19 NIV
Reconciliation is a change in relationship between two people. When we accept Jesus as Lord, he has removed sin for us. He made reconciliation possible. “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in your mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless…” (Colossians 1:21-22). The mind seems to be an initial part of where the estrangement might begin between God and man. Because we reconciled with God, it is also our thoughts and perspective that should be brought to reconciliation to God.
Paul implores us in 2 Corinthians 5:20 to be reconciled to Christ to live as ambassadors who represent Christ. Christ reconciled all things and this includes our opinions, our social media time, and all things that we put in our minds. Our minds should be reconciled to God and aligned to His word. The reconciliation towards God is for us to submit even our minds- thoughts and perspective - to his lordship.
Reconciling our thoughts and perspective to how God views the world, is aligning with a biblical worldview. Chuck Colson defined a biblical worldview as "the sum total of our beliefs about the world". He believed that a worldview is the perspective from which we interpret the world and make decisions, and that it's the leading force behind our emotions, actions, and decisions.” In adopting a biblical worldview, you may have to reconcile some of your own thoughts and perspectives. God’s views are not our views but surrendering our thoughts and perspective helps us to be reconciled to Him. We don’t want to be hostile or an enemy to Christ! He loves us and rescued us. As a follower of Christ there is no “off limit” area that we should not surrender to Christ.
I am reminded of the monkey that finds a shiny pebble in a jar and once he makes a fist around the shiny stone, he can longer remove his hand from the jar! He is trapped and burdened with a jar on his hand. Often we don’t want to let go of our ways, but the reward will be a more fullness in Christ. If only we would surrender all things, even our inner thoughts!
John Edlridge writes it as a prayer:
“Oh Jesus, save me here. I surrender this unconverted place in me to you, to your indwelling presence. Unite with me here; permeate me here. I pray to be completely converted here….Jesus, what else is needed? Show me how to cooperate with you.”- Resilient, p. 107 John Edlridge
May you receive a blessing and a fullness of the indwelling of God as you surrender even your hidden thoughts and ways.
Leah Rabb
Elementary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
Excellent Thought Part 2
“...whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Philippians 4:8
This week we pick up with the second half of Philippians 4:8: pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. In my mind I lump all of these things together because all of these things are “good”. We live in a time/culture where everything just seems bad all the time and so our minds start to only see the negative in a world that God created. If we force ourselves to step back, there’s an awful lot to love. I find it very compelling that Paul tells the church in Philippi what to think about. Think about these good things. It’s almost like if we keep our minds on the things of God, we will be staying in line with the process of sanctification that we are all on.
Both what I wrote about last week and the second half of Philippians 4:8 which we touch on this week come from what’s inside us. In Matthew 12, Jesus, when talking to the Pharisees says, “How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” It is easy for us to portray something on the outside that is contrary to what is on the inside, but in reality what is inside us will eventually come out.
All of these things in Philippians 4:8 speak of the excellence of God and His Kingdom. So as we focus on the excellent story that He is writing in our lives may we heed the call of the Apostle Paul.
Joel Gutowsky
Director of Secondary Student Life
Logos Preparatory Academy
