Well Just Write! is over. But, I had the urge to sit down and write something. So like Mary Kathryn says “looks like our experiment worked for me!” Hear, hear!
In life, so much of how we behave is based on perception. In psychology (of which I am an undergrad student), learning and behavior typically go hand-in-hand. Psychologists have been trying to figure just how learning works. It is basically understood that our brain is a plastic mechanism that takes in information, processes it according our experiences and our genetic make-up and spits back out a reaction, or behavior. When we are conceived, God chooses our eye color, hair color, personality traits and characteristics, and etc. We are born with a basic construct. For those of us who believe that we inherit spiritual factors at conception, we are born with both the good and the bad from our family lines.
As soon as we are born, we start learning. We learn the smell of our parents, which voice belongs to which face, how to get what we need (i.e. crying for just about everything), and etc. From birth on, our basic personality structure and learning experiences color how we react to our environment. For example, my own basic personality has stubbornness/persistence woven into it’s structure because I inherited the physical genes that make me this way from my mother and my father. I used to be just plain stubborn, now I am persistent. I used to be stiff-necked and unyielding, now I (mostly) use this trait to help me keep pushing forward into a better place in life.
How I perceive this trait in myself depends on my perception of myself. How other’s view this trait depends on how other’s perceive me based on their own experiences. We sometimes call this a filter. We receive information about our environment, our brain filters the information according to our understanding of things and says “Okay, this input is like this experience, and this is what you usually do”. We are more likely to react a certain way in any given situation because of our experiences. Sometimes we are aware of this, and sometimes we are not aware of this. If I perceive myself as stubborn, I will more than likely behave in a stubborn fashion. If perceive myself as persistent, I will more than likely behave in a persistent fashion.
How we react all depends on how we see the situation. This is where Jesus comes in to the picture. As a Christian, I have a choice; I can either choose to see life and myself wrongly, or I can choose to see life and myself through rightly or according to the truth. As a Christian I understand that Satan wishes to convince me to chain myself to lies so that I am useless to God and behave wrongly. Satan wants me to see life through Satan-colored glasses. Satan will strive to convince us that we need to keep believing his perception. Believing in lies never gets us very far with God. Instead, I need to learn the truth because Jesus wants me to view life from his perception (i.e. THE TRUTH), or through Jesus-colored glasses. It’s our choice everyday in every moment whether we believe the lies or we believe the truth.
If we take off the lies from our eyes and look at things from God’s perspective we understand what is happening from a different point of view (i.e. THE TRUTH). Life, ourselves, and others begin to look different to us. We begin to see that person that used to irritate us the way Jesus sees that person. We begin to understand that persons difficulties. With God’s help we begin to feel compassion for that person and react to them with grace. If we allow the truth to permeate our being, we react differently to our circumstances. We start to behave in way that brings life and light to our life and other’s life. God’s truth starts to shine through for others to see. When we allow ourselves to life from a God perspective the kingdom of darkness loses another soul and THE KINGDOM OF LIGHT WINS. Satan no longer has control.
Isn’t that worth putting on Jesus-colored glasses?
Stage Fright 