October 31, 2018
Christians can choose their values. That is what freedom of choice is about. While we are free to choose our values, we are responsible for the actions and speech they create.
You decide what you want to value. You can examine your current values and either: Keep them or, replace them.
- Keep Your Present Values
Life as we know it prefers the status quo. The mind and heart like the body react to reject anything new or foreign. Because of this comfort zone, we work to keep a sense of “normalcy.” We resist change, including the acquisition of new values.
Just as the body resists a new exercise program or diet, the mind and heart resist new thoughts and new values. So, we must develop new thought patterns or mindsets to replace the current thought pattern or value set.
Experience proves that people resist gaining new values because it calls for change. As someone has said, “No one likes change except a baby with wet diapers.” People will go to great lengths to avoid change even when it‘s to their advantage to do so. Change most often comes when it‘s in your self-interest to change.
Someone has defined “insanity” as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So, if you want to change your behavior for the better, you will need to change your values.
- Replace Current Values
If you will walk with God, you must accept change as a reality of life. Don’t resist it. To act in a new way, you must acquire new values. Godly values must replace secular values. Tweaking a value does not change behavior.
People adopt most of their values from the 4Es (Experience, Education, Environment, and Entourage). But by the power of God and the miracle of the always learning mind, we continue to acquire, adapt, mold and eliminate based on the lifestyle we have chosen to live
- Next week: 7 Steps to Acquiring a New Value