Learning Social Media Marketing and Success through Meditation.

I am learning to do Social Media Marketing for a business owned by a friend of mine.  It's really quite a blast as I put content and photos up on the page.  It's getting the message out, and learning about how to really connect with customers and friends of the business. 
I am doing at least one Facebook posting a day and go out every week to get more photos.  I have been appreciating the difficulty business owners have in getting their customer's attention in the endless flood of ads, blogs, sites, and posts out there.

It seems to me that there is another One who has to fight for my attention.  My face time with God gets crunched by all the blogs and news and emails that I want to read.  I have to struggle to mentally climb out of the Facebook newsreel and into something more lasting and nourishing than grumpy kitty photos. 
I am working on memorizing a verse a week and the one for this week (and last week I'm afraid) really cuts to the heart of my mental focus.  Here it goes, from memory:
Joshua 1:8
"This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein, for then shall thou make thy way very prosperous, and then thou shall have good success. " KJV

Ok, so I had to look a few times.  But here is that verse in another version:

"Do not let this book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

So what does that mean?  Looking in the Hebrew in my Lexicon, I found out that meditate means to mumble, or to imagine.  I think of my girls when they are playing a "game" of imagination with their vast assortment of Polly Pockets.  They are continually creating the drama and characters by speaking out what is going on.  They create with words the story they want to enjoy, using the dolls as props.

In our reality, we need to use God's Word to create a new reality for ourselves.  We need to not just read God's Word, but imagine how our lives will change as a result of the insights we gain from our reading.  When we read God's word, we need to see our lives and our selves in a new light, and then act accordingly with what is revealed to us.  Meditation on scripture allows us to mentally "try on" a new way of life in the process of becoming a better representation of Christ.

Daily Bible reading and study is great but it is not an end in itself.  The goal is to have a permanent change in thinking that causes us to be more like God and to enjoy Him more.   It takes more than "scrolling through" the Bible, we have to muddle it out in our minds.

Having Coffee with God

This morning I sat and cuddled with God in the big chair in the living room.  I was thinking how much He must love me because He has put up with so much stuff from me over the years.  It was sweet just to sit there and soak up His love, imagining the arms of the chair were His arms around me.

I then began to read Psalms.  You gotta read Psalms!  What a rich language of conversation with God is in the Psalms.  As I was reading through the book, all the emotions of the past few days were uncovered and God shed his perspective on how I thought and felt.  I left feeling really heard, really loved and really encouraged.

God really wants to have that conversation with YOU!  Grab a cup of coffee and the book of Psalms and get cozy!

Fight or Flight

 Ps 11:1 ¶ <> In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?
 Ps 11:2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
 Ps 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
 Ps 11:4 ¶ The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
 Ps 11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.


I am loving the Psalms because they give me such a rich prayer language.  Today I read Psalm 11 above and realized that it is a perfect prescription for stress. Stress has been described as the body's involuntary response to perceived danger.  The body instinctively prepares to flee or to fight when there is a threat, real or imagined.

The first verse of this Psalm talks about the Flight response.  David says, "I am not going to yield to the temptation to escape life or to run from my problems.  I am not going to let the threat of the moment cause me to shrink back from my destiny and purpose.  I am trusting in God for the results as I face things head on.

The next verse describes the attack of the enemy.  I see this as more than conflict with people; it describes the warfare in the mind.  The devil lines up all kinds of negative, defeatist, and evil thinking to try to separate us from God and His plan for us.

Verse Three talks about the importance of staying centered on the foundational truth of the gospel: God loves me, God deserves to be praised and worshiped, God will never leave me, God has a plan for me, God requires obedience and forgiveness of others, God will love and forgive me even if I mess up.  The entire warfare of the enemy of our souls is to get us off that foundation.  When we entertain ideas of either our own prideful estimation or our rejection and failure, the enemy has us off our foundation and can attack us at will.

Verse Four talks about how the Lord is well aware of everything that we face and are going through.  He allows what happens for our character development and dependence on Him.  He is the master of "ultimate justice"--God is able to bring about total restoration and healing and the defeat of all our enemies, inside us and outside of us.

Verse Five embraces the other end of the stress response--the fight response.  God hates violence and using physical or verbal violence to control or overwhelm others is something He works against.  He will provide ultimate justice to those who pursue violence as a means of getting their way.  Thankfully, He can also deliver the violent person from using violence and teach them to deal with stress by trusting on Him.

God's word is so practical.  When we trust on Him fully, we are psychologically healthy and able to deal with life in a positive way.  When we are in intimate fellowship with Him, He helps us to overcome our natural flight-or-fight tendencies to become proactive adults.