Automatic Negative Thoughts. What are we to do with them?

    Our house was a fix and flip.  When we bought it, it had just been redone with new floors, a new basement, and a new patio.  The extra paver stones from the patio sat unused in a neat line up next to the house in the side yard. In the back yard, there was a fence with a new gate.  Problem was that every time it was the slightest bit damp outside, the area in front of the gate flooded and was impassible. To rectify this, there were large sheets of rotting plywood laid down in the area.  I got the idea one day to use the left over pavers from the side of the house to create a path. Makes sense, right? I read up on laying paver stones. I laid out what I had in front of the gate and realized I would have to get some more to complete the pattern. I called the previous owner and found out where he got the pavers.  I went, got the extra pavers, and dug down the required 8 inches and filled it in with paver gravel and paver base.  Then I laid out the new pavers.  It took a few days of work, but I was really happy with the results.

     During the summer and fall and even during the winter, I

saw that the area in front of the gate no longer flooded and the new pathway looked nice.  That is, until spring.  One day, a week ago, we had a quick snow melt on a warm day.  The sump pump in the basement was running non-stop.  I walked out in the back yard and saw this...  My pathway was under and inch of water.

     At that moment, I had the thought sneak into my mind:  You failed.  You're a failure.  You don't do anything right. At that point, I had a choice.  I could listen to the thoughts and follow them on a rabbit trail of self deprecation, or I could choose to dismiss them.  I could choose to check the facts.  I thought, it is only a small bit of water and it is passable in boots.  I thought, 99% of the time, it is dry.  The area normally drains fine even in the rain.

     Every day we are presented with situations like these.  We can choose to dwell on the negative thoughts, and follow them to out self-deprecating conclusion.  Or we can choose to think on the positive.  To check the facts, and to say to ourselves, "no, I have done well.  I am not what I am telling myself that I am." Over time, it will help us to think of ourselves positively.  And, I have noticed, that when I am thinking about myself more positively, I think about others the same way.  I look for the good attributes of the people I interact with every day.

     Let's take it back to Jesus.  He knew he was good.  He knew he was God's son and that his father "was well pleased with him." He knew that was his identity.  And we can see the results.  Everyone he met, save the Pharisees and Sadducees, he chose to focus on the positive in them. (Even the religious rulers he cared about enough to critique the way they were suppressing the people: trying to turn them from their ways.) For everyone else, his extreme love was outwardly evident. Think about Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector - a man living the hated profession of a traitor by the opinion of most Jewish people at the time.  Jesus sees the good in him in Luke 19:

"When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,'Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.' So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, 'He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.'

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, 'Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.'

Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.' "

     Jesus, seeing the good in him, choose to commune with him, to pick him out of the crowds and validate him. And, hidden in this is the truth: Jesus saw himself as worthy.  Can you imagine yourself inviting a prostitute or a homeless man, or a hated politician, to dinner in front of a whole crowd?  Wouldn't you think about what they are thinking of you? How they would judge you?  But Jesus, knowing that he himself was worth-while, knowing that he was a well loved son of God, did not think twice about this, or entertain any such thought.  And he saw that Zacchaeus was worth while.

     We must ask ourselves, how can I be more like Jesus in this respect?  It is by accepting our identity from God, as worth while, good, well-loved sons and daughters of God.  By choosing to dismiss those negative thoughts.  Some people call them ANTS (automatic negative thoughts).  We can ignore them and replace them knowing that we are good, and we have good things to offer.  Doing this makes us a little more like Jesus. Makes us more able to see the good in others. Isn't that what we want as followers of Jesus?  It is for me.