Tip of My Iceberg

John, in his ongoing efforts to be the best Papa in the world, decided to buy a slushie machine. You know the kind, like 7-11’s slurpee machine, where you get to choose the color of your brain freeze.

Part of this has to do with the incredible heat wave we’ve been experiencing here in Florida. Anything to help the kids stay cool and hopefully tolerate being outdoors for a little bit.

It took a little doing; reading and following directions have not always been my strong suit. I tend to intuit how to do things. Thankfully, our kids did read the instructions, and they determined blue raspberry would be the inaugural flavor to try. You can imagine how that impacted the kids.

Blue tongues and teeth. Like a group of Smurfs had attacked their mouths, leaving a tell-tale mark for all who had been slurping them. Like dyeing your teeth.

We all are impacted by people and ideas that leave their tell-tale marks on our lives. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and philosopher, once said, “The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” What we allow to percolate in our minds influences the path of our thinking.

Near the end of my dad’s life, when he was in assisted living, I wanted to come up to visit him. I would have stayed with my mom, but it wasn’t a convenient time for her; she was still working. I offered to stay in a hotel, but that wasn’t going to work. I resented her lack of flexibility. The more I thought about it, the more resentful I felt.

What was difficult was that my dad died before I got to see him. My mind was filled with anguish and less-than-kind thoughts about my mom. The whole situation colored my perspective, impacting everything I did. I couldn’t let go of my anger.

I know others have felt the same impact of their thoughts. What we allow to fill our minds focuses our attention. William James, an American philosopher and psychologist in the early twentieth century, often seen as the father of modern psychology, once said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.” It was recognized that our attitudes impact our choices. Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but…the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given situation.”

Jesus fully understood the power of our thinking. He dealt with religious leaders whose thinking was so mired in laws and traditions that they couldn’t see that Jesus was the one who fulfilled all the prophecies they understood. When He was speaking to a crowd early in His ministry, Jesus said, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” Luke 6:45. What we fill our minds with colors our attitudes and actions. If you know what has been a person’s focus, their actions should never surprise us.

Like the blue slushies tainting the tongues and teeth of the kids as they let the blue settle in their mouths, what we allow to settle in our minds will determine our attitudes.

What’s coloring yours?