How to cultivate the garden of your mind.

I have recently emerged from a season of prayer and seeking God with a new mandate on my life. For myself and the many women I have the honour of ministering to. It begins with this simple truth which is carried on God’s heart for us as daughters.

We called to cultivate a beautiful mind.

I’ve been on this amazing journey to rediscover the power of my mind. The fruit of a brilliant, truth bearing thought. And the insipid fruit of a negative thought. The empowering process of meditating daily on truth thoughts which are centred upon who I am as a unique individual In Christ.

Our minds are like gardens. Having recently moved into a beautiful home and possessing my first enviable garden- I am now on a steep learning curve in understanding how to tend to my garden in every season.

Our minds are the seed beds of our inner world.

They can either be seeded with the most incredibly fragranced flowers growing deep in rich soil. Reflecting God’s truth in our lives and who we really are. Or they can be compromised with scary looking weeds growing amidst the flowers. The lies we accept, the negative thoughts we dwell on and the condemnation we choose to ascribe to ourselves. Toxic weeds that strangle out the truth and leave us defeated and insecure.

1 Peter 5:8 tells us that the devil roams around looking for someone to prey upon. How do we resist him? By being alert in our thinking. Giving him no opportunity to plant a weedy seed. We are fighting an unseen battle that is so real. The devil wants your mind to be in constant state of defeat but Jesus wants your mind to embrace the truth of your new identity and the freedom He has bought for you. So you have a kingdom mindset, secured in the unshakeable victory you have been given.

I’ve decided to be a women who does not live with an abundance of weeds in the garden of my mind. I desire to be a low maintenance woman before God! It’s therefore a daily choice. We are not victims of our thoughts. We can choose to uproot and reprogramme our minds. You are your own mind surgeon. The landscape of our minds are determined by us as women. I find this incredible truth fills me daily with fresh hope.

It’s work. When I see a bunch of weeds- intertwined with plants- it’s tough to get them out. Especially those big fat ones which can’t just be pulled- they require a shovel to dig up the roots. Pulling them merely snaps off the stem which fails to addresses what’s underneath . Sometimes, as a newby gardener, I can’t be bothered: That weed is spiky and hurts to touch. So someone else in the family will do it. I’ll do it another day. It may die by itself. I’m going to ignore it. I could pretend that it’s a real flower. All the excuses we give ourselves that the responsibility for the way we think is not ours, it’s too painful to address, I prefer to run away, I’ll pretend it’s all ok.

To guard our hearts is to attend to the garden of our mind.

Our thoughts govern our hearts.

And in ways that we may never fully appreciate- they govern our physical bodies. Powerful and invisible mental cognitive pathways that always take us somewhere.

So I encourage you. To commit yourself with me to the truth in Romans 12:2. So that your heart becomes even more soft and beautiful by transforming the way you think. Let’s work at making the garden of our minds a place of beauty, strength and a true representation of who we really are.