Season 5 Timing: Cognitive Reframing

Behold the power of positivity!

In the new season of Vision in the Valley, the focus is on God's perfect timing and cognitive reframing. I emphasize the ability to shift mindsets to view moments from different perspectives. Drawing from Pastor Glenn's teachings on reclaiming moments, we explore cognitive restructuring and the practical approaches of the 'three C's' - catch it, check it, and change it. I share a personal journey of positivity as a gift from God and reflects on a powerful sermon by Pastor Hannah about Aeneas. The biblical story illustrates the significance of maintaining a positive outlook and trusting in God's timing, as exhibited by Aeneas, who was healed after eight years of paralysis. The message underlines the importance of self-awareness, recollection, and the impact of one's positivity on others.

Transcript

Welcome back to Vision in the Valley. I am so excited to share with you this new season. It's all about God's perfect timing. I didn't know exactly where to start, which episode to start with, but the one that kept jumping out at me is this one. Cognitive reframing. So let's just talk a little bit about that.

That is the ability to shift your mindset  to view a moment or an experience from a different perspective. In fact, Pastor Glenn often speaks about it. I like that he says, um, and I'm paraphrasing here to reclaim the moment or name the moment. And this is all about shifting, shifting the negative thought patterns and looking at them from a different perspective.

If the perspective can be changed, so can the behavior that's generated from that thought, right?  I like to think of cognitive restructuring as a tool or the tools  used to build the reframing. Becoming aware of your thinking, evaluating your thoughts, and then rationalizing or making sense of it and then replacing it if it's negative.

There's another thought process behind it. It's called the three C's. I like that approach. It's catch it. check it and change it. And I like that because it's very quick, very to the point and life happens so quickly, right? So suddenly we don't have a lot of time to stop and rationalize and replay, but we can catch it when we say it, check it like that was not how I want this to go and then change it.

Either way, restructuring requires you to have self awareness. You have to be able to listen and identify your own thoughts in order to analyze them and to change them  So there are some experiences for me that I don't even have to worry about doing the three C's catch check and change Because they happen simultaneously and I've learned that that's another gift that the Lord has given me that the gift of positivity And it's again, as old as I am, I never thought of that as a gift, but most recently having people, I'm leaving the health system that I've worked in and have had these wonderful experiences and learned and had so many graduations and I've shared them with you, but on the heels of leaving, Some folks have shared some things with me and one of the things that they say they admire or respect is what I bring to table, the positivity.

And I never thought about that as a gift.  Not, not for one moment did I even say that some other, some people struggle with  bringing the positivity to the forefront. It's not that they're not good people or positive people, but it's not their initial goal. thought process. And so it hit me like, wow, this is definitely a blessing because it does come a little easier for some than for others. 

And so while I was in my moment of thankfulness, I said, well, I attribute that to being  a Christian, right? My love for Christ. But then I had to go back and say, no, it's, it's a true gift because you can know the Lord and love the Lord and still struggle in that particular area.  So then I said,  as representatives of his good word and, um, his good work, we must all have a positive attitude.

We have to, whether it means pulling on each other to get there, but we have to maintain this positive outlook. And often we may need to use cognitive restructuring to accomplish the cognitive reframing.  So I'll give you an example. On Sunday, Pastor Hannah taught us about Aeneas in Acts 9, 32 to 35.  We are in a series at church where he and pastor Glenn have dubbed get up. 

The first week was get up and do it. The second was get up and move on. The third week was get up and get over it. And the last week was get up so they can see you guys have to go back and check them out. This particular service, 1230 service, you know, I'm always representing 1230. When I tell you that the glory fell in that building.

On this day. I, it was amazing. I've had so many amazing moments and I, it's hard to imagine being in a church where the word is being spoken that you don't say you had an amazing moment. But when I say this was just bananas for me, it was bananas. Check it out. I want to make sure that you get  the word.

the way he laid it out for us on this particular day. So I'm not going to play with it, but instead just talk about how and what I received from it.  While Peter was traveling, he went to visit Lydda.  Aeneas was a believer.  NIV refers to Lydda, the place as the Lord's people, where the Lord's people dwell.

King James says it's where the saints dwelled. And Amplified Bible says that the saints or God's people dwelt there. So, Peter was going to visit  a believer.  This believer happened to be paralyzed and had been bedridden for 8 years.  Like I said, Pastor Hannah broke it down with fire. You have got to go back and check it out, but I'm, I'm not a pastor.

I'm not a preacher. I am someone who loves the Lord and I want to connect the word back to our everyday thoughts. Not just on a Sunday. or on a Thursday or Wednesday, whenever your Bible study is. So this is not where I'm going. You need to go to the, I'm, I'm the one that's supposed to connect you back to the pastor or the preacher.

So make sure you go back to listen to that good word on that day. But here it is, how I see it unfolding.  Here is a man who knows the Lord, who believes the Lord, and he had the ability to walk and to move about because the Bible says that he's only been bedridden for eight years. I say only been because in the length of my life, only been  not able to do something for eight years is a huge full statement.

The fact that I can no longer do it.  So I don't, I use the word only been very loosely.  This man who was a believer has not been able to move unassisted for eight years.  How positive do you think he was while he was sitting on that matter? That bed bedridden? How, how positive do you think he was during that time as people walked by him? 

You see, it's different when you've been able to do something when you've had the ability to do something or the exposure to do something or the experience of doing something is different. The freedom of getting up and moving about unassisted is something different than the person who's never experienced that before.

Although they also have.  this issue, right? The limits of not being able to move about, but for someone who had the ability to walk before and it's now crippled or paralyzed, it's a different experience. And in my, my own mind, I imagine that the person who's had an opportunity to do it It's probably meaner or angrier or more apt to be meaner or angrier because you've had that exposure.

And I think about in my life where I've been, what I've been allowed to do, the trips I've been able to take  and, and then suddenly not being able to do that.  So my question is  what, what happens when you can no longer move?  Does your positive Outlook change  to be able to move about freely  and then  not being able to do so. 

I can only imagine Aeneas using his cognitive reframing, restructuring skills, right?  I'm sure you can look back on your own life and see a time where you were able to do a thing and I won't say suddenly because it may not have been suddenly for you. I can think about what I've shared with you guys already.

I call it the 16 to six figures and six years testimony where I literally had to start all over again. And the 16 an hour didn't afford me the same trips I had been used to before. It didn't afford me the same experiences. that I had before, but as I was on that mat or on that bed, I just kept being positive about change was, was going to come.

It had to come.  And I imagine that Aeneas was being very positive the same way. And the reason why I say that is because when he received the good word, when Peter came to him and said, Jesus Christ heals you get up and roll up your mat. He did so immediately. He, it didn't say that he hesitated and he thought twice about it.

He followed orders and got up and was obedient immediately. He had been paralyzed for eight years, but he got up after he heard that Jesus Christ heals you. And I imagine that if he had been in this negative space,  He could have thought, Oh, all kinds of things. Oh, now he's going to heal me. I could have been here, there, and everywhere by now.

Why today? Why not yesterday? Think about all the things I missed out on sitting here on this mat, or I'm going to get Johnny and Paul for, for not sitting here with me when they knew that I was walking with, when we walked and ran together, they were around. But when I was on this mat, it could have come up with a billion things.

But the Bible says that he got up and he rolled up his mat.  And I'm sure that when he looked back at everything, he thought about how many people would have missed their blessing had he not been obedient and gotten up  and rolled up his mat.  Because the Bible says in verse 35 that all those who lived in  Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

So I started to think about the eight years, the eight years One year wasn't enough for some of those believers. They needed to see more. Three years of his consistent positivity wasn't enough for some of those believers. In fact,  somebody needed eight years.  To be a reminder that we serve a limitless God and that he is time.

And so eight years is nothing. I haven't forgotten about him. I haven't forgotten about your problem.  Ania's job was to  stay positive so that the Lord could use him  later and bring all of Lita and Sharon to him.  We started talking about in 32 who dwelt in the area. So they were saints. These were people who believed in the Lord.

And that just tells me and reminds me that even saints need to be reminded about how good God is. This is a message where Aeneas is testifying To Saints, can I just say that as much as I'm thankful for cognitive reframing and restructuring, I'm thankful for recollection.  Because when I recall to my mind, come on Saints,  that mat that he was on that bed served as his recollection reference point. 

Once he got up and started to walk,  You wouldn't know what he had been through those eight years that he hadn't been able to walk, had he not had that max. And so I am thankful for recalling to my mind, as I said earlier,  the space or the moments that I've been in prior to my deliverance or my healing, because that is what the victory is all about. 

Pastor says he rolled up his mat and he tucked it under his arm and it gave way to heaven's runway That's me paraphrasing, but I love that. I love that. He re referenced heaven's runway  I imagine that as positive that Aeneas had to have been to receive the word so quickly and was able to respond so quickly.

He had to have had a day or two where he was just desperate, where he was just wondering where God was in it,  where he was saying to himself, how did I get here? How did I get from walking and running and moving about to being stuck on this, this here mat?  How did, how did this happen?  I imagine that he did that and I imagine that he did that more than one or two times,  but I'm sure that when he did that, he also used his three C's, right?

He  caught it,  he checked it,  and he changed it.  So cognitive reframing and restructuring is not about forgetting or denying  what's happening to you.  It's about praising what he'll do while you're on that mat  with these crippled legs.  I imagine that Heaven's Runway is lined with believers that knew what was at stake, knew that their positivity mattered, knew that as bad as I feel, that's just this moment, and then suddenly I can be healed.

I, that's how I imagine things. And if that is so, then you are truly building and restructuring and reframing your own pathway to that runway.  So be cognizant. This is all about being aware. Be cognizant  because your runway awaits.