I'm so glad you're back! Ready to get on the road again?

Oh, there’s a flashing sign up ahead. Can you see what it says?

CAUTION: ROAD WORK AHEAD. REDUCE SPEED

Looks like we'll be slowing down a bit.

Apparently the road wasn't safe enough to drive on. They needed to do some intense work on it.
 

Maybe we should try that with our life.
 
Do some major construction!

Yesterday we learned how to start new. Now we need to learn how to keep things out of our lives that will damage us.
Why do they fix broken roads? Why do they fill up potholes?
 
Because if they leave them broken, they will only break even further. The more we drive over it with our cars, the more damage is caused to the road.
 
So the road needs to be worked on, rebuilt, and made stronger from time to time.

You know how it feels like every day things only get worse and worse? We keep driving over the same potholes. We encounter triggers, memories, flashbacks and after effects of what happened to us all the time.
We feel weaker and weaker every day.

All of that time we spend dwelling on the past, damages our “road”. So we need to make it stronger.

Remember the story of Snow White?
 
She got a warning that the queen was going to kill her. So she ran away to the forest (to get herself out of the situation).

That was smart of her, don’t you think?

When the queen found out where she was, she disguised herself as an old woman and found her. When Snow White greeted her (not knowing who she was), the disguised queen offered her an apple.

Random thought... kinda strange how satan used fruit to lure Eve and then Eve gave it to Adam too isn't it?

Snow White should have known not to trust strangers. But, she took the apple, ate it, and was poisoned.

What do you think she could she have done to prevent this from happening?
She did great on the first step… hiding out. But then she didn’t stay guarded.
 
You’re right…. She should not have answered the door.

That would have eliminated her temptation to even taste the apple. Then the poison would not have been an issue.

Satan is still using fruit to poison the minds and hearts of lost and troubled souls like us, you know.
 
If we become aware of bad fruit in our life (whether it be addictions, bad people, temptations, lust, fear, doubt, anger, pride, etc.), we need to remove the bad fruit immediately.

When there is something that is a threat to your new life and progress, take the utmost caution, be over protective, and remind ourselves that just a little bit of poison is enough to cause major damage to our souls.

We do have to give Snow White some credit though. She WAS smart enough to take herself out of a bad situation which she knew would kill her if she stayed.

Let's do that as well.

We can't help ourselves or change unless we get away from those things which negatively affect our thoughts and produce bad fruits within us.

We must WANT to change and actually BELIEVE that it will work. If we don't believe that we can get the help that we need, then we naturally give up and don't even try.

We need to make sure that we BELIEVE we can get better.

We have to have FAITH.

Just like this song coming on the radio says….
 

As long as we're in our "comfort zone" and everything happening in our life is pretty predictable, how close do you stay in communication with God?

Okay, now, when there's a crisis ... Even a minor one ... Doesn't our prayer time increase? Isn't our desire for God's presence more intense at those times? Do we not only pray harder and longer, but whisper more mini-messages to Him throughout the day and night?

Why?

Because we DO have FAITH that He will intervene to help.

If we didn't really believe He would help, we simply wouldn't pray.

God's purpose was not for us to do it all alone. His purpose was for us to do things FOR Him and WITH Him.

We're taught to be independent and SELF sufficient by the world.

This "rule" does not apply when taking a leap of FAITH.

We must be as a child.

Our Heavenly Father EXPECTS us to depend on Him. He waits for us to ask Him for His hand to help us.
 

Ok. Are we ready to make some changes in our life? 

 Let's see ... What are some of the things which negatively affect us and bring forth bad fruits and what can we do to change them?

Addictions we continue to hold to. It focuses our mind on our self rather than the HOPE we should be focused on. How can we get rid of them?

Take control. Decide you WANT to get rid of them. Find a replacement for them that is healthy.

Staying in touch with people that continue to hurt us or trigger us. How do we change this?

Choose to. If you want it enough, we know how to keep them from contacting us.

Watching TV shows or movies that we know have triggered us in the past. How can we fix that?

Don’t watch them anymore. Find clean movies to fill our mind with, OR instead of watching TV, read a study or the Bible instead. We are in the healing process right now. Every ounce of something we put in us is vital. We are refilling ourselves right now. Do we want to be filled back up with the negative? Or try something new and refill with positive things?

Visiting places we know could and will lead to trouble. How can we change this?

Stay at home instead. Find something else to occupy your time with instead of visiting old places that HURT you.

Listening to music that drags our spirit down. Music that we listened to when we were at our lowest points. So when we listen to it, it takes us back there.

Instead.... let's listen to music that ENCOURAGES us. Music that keeps us headed forward. Christian music is filled with Hope and Joy. That is something we can try out.

Visiting websites that have led us to trouble and drama. Whether it be chat rooms or just other people's websites about themselves.

Remember reading certain things and feeling all those negative feelings just from something we read that we didn't HAVE to read to begin with? That's too much drama for us now. We are all about PEACE and CHANGING. Let's stay focused and be extremely careful where we visit online.

Allowing our thoughts to linger in the past. Allowing ourselves to relive memories.

Instead... if we stay in prayer with God, our mind can not be on God AND our memories at the same time. It can only think about one thing at a time.

Wow. That's a lot of changes.

But, I know this will help us. Not hurt us.

We can actually apply each of those changes and get closer to God. 

This should help us from having idle time. That's when the Devil seems to get us at our weakest. We get bored or have idle time and our thoughts start to RUN.

Run from vivid memories, to flashbacks, to triggers… yeah… these changes should be great for us.


Do you hear the song playing in the background over the radio?
 

Oh how cool, another great song...
 

Hey… you aren't doing this alone. I'm right here with you. I'm not going anywhere.

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM YET?